The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Nigeria has flagged off the 2016 end of year special patrol and ember months’ sensitisation programme for commercial drivers in Osun State.
The flag-off was commissioned by Zonal Corps Commander of the FRSC zone 11, Assistant Corps Marshal Aipoh and the State Sector Commander, Umar Ibrahim.
According to Mr Ibrahim, the high rate of road accidents in some flashpoints of the state including the Ilesa-Akure Road necessitated the special patrol to complement the ember months’ campaign which had been a yearly campaign to curb incessant road accidents and avoidable loss of lives during the last three months of the year.
“Speed is sweet for those behind the wheel, be it private or commercial drivers and even motorcyclists but the repercussion is what we are here to guard against and we believe our roads are going to be safer than it has ever been in the past during the coming festive seasons”.
The Osun State sector commander said with the theme ‘Crash the Crash, Speed Kills’, the five major causes of road accidents during the festive seasons would be tackled to make the highways and other road networks in the state safe.
Mr Ibrahim further highlighted, that “over speeding, overloading, wrong overtaking, dangerous driving as well as following the wrong way which we call road violation” are the key areas to be focused on during the campaign”.
Participants at the event including private and commercial drivers as well as students from selected schools commended the Road Safety Corps for bringing some level of sanity to the Nigeria roads urging them to do more to ensure that crashes on the roads are brought to the lowest.
The Chairman of the Motorcycle Transport Union of Nigeria (MUTUN), Osun State chapter, Gbenga Ajenifuja, said that there was still more to be done between the Road Safety officials and road users.
Ajenifuja, told reporters that “issues like driving without helmet, refocusing the headlights skyward as well as drunk driving would be checked among my members across the branches in Osun state”.
The representative of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Mr Rauf Adeyemo, said things were gradually changing, as commercial drivers now adhere more to traffic and road regulations due to such sensitisation.