The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Corps Marshal, Dauda Ali Biu, has emphasized that every effort must be made to guarantee the abolition of traffic accidents.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja during the formal kickoff of the massive Easter Motor Park rally in 2024, he bemoaned the fact that the corps had documented 107 road traffic collisions involving 705 individuals, of whom 81 were fatal, 345 were injured, and 279 were saved unharmed.
In order to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities, he said, the corps had risen to the challenge by strategically delivering sensitization sessions to commuters’ homes, “in line with our 2024 corporate strategic goals.”
According to him, driving under the influence, overloading cars, using tires that are too old, lane-changing recklessness, going too fast, passing someone in the wrong direction, and other behaviors endanger not just the life of the driver but also the lives and property of other road users, including pedestrians, motorists, and even animals.
Speaking on behalf of the Deputy Corps Marshal, Operations, Alkali Zaki, he stated that poor driving practices endanger the condition of road infrastructures, which are heavily subsidized by the tax payers.
Because union officials play a crucial role on the road as a prelude to massive deployments of personnel and logistics to the highways, particularly at the black spots for the containment of the ongoing traffic gridlock and the accompanying hazards, Biu said that part of the efforts put in place to deal with the challenges included the idea of taking the message of safety down to the motor parks quite early.
Aloga Ogbodo, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Road Transport Owners (NARTO), advocated for a complete prohibition on the sale of alcohol in car parks.
He cautioned that accidents should be prevented at all costs because they have an impact on both humanity and the nation’s economy.
During the occasion, Com. Yusuf Alabi, a representative of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), stated that a portion of the issue stemmed from drivers who had retired from the civil sector and turned to transport driving as a means of retirement.
He claimed that the majority of them utilize strong drugs to get through their workdays since they are constantly worrying about when their gratuity would be paid.
Since their eyesight improves, he recommended all drivers to start their journey without using any hard substances. He also said that drivers should slow down since there was no need to rush.