We must eliminate road traffic crashes – FRSC boss

The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dauda Ali Biu, has insisted that all efforts must be put in place to ensure that road traffic crashes are eliminated.

Speaking Thursday in Abuja at the official flag-off of the 2024 Easter Motor Park mega rally, he lamented that the corps recorded a total of 107 road traffic crashes that involved 705 people with 81 killed, 345 victims injured while 279 were rescued without injuries.

He said the corps had risen to surmount the challenge by bringing sensitisation talks to the doorsteps of commuters as a strategic intervention to reduce road traffic crashes and fatalities “in line with our 2024 corporate strategic goals.”

He said drinking and driving, overloading of vehicles, use of worn-out tyres, lane indiscipline, excessive speed, wrongful overtaking etc do not only pose a threat to the life of the driver, but also to the lives and properties of all road users (motorists, pedestrians, and even animals).

Represented by the Deputy Corps Marshal, Operations, Alkali Zaki, he said such bad driving behaviours were a threat to the state of road infrastructures which cost a lot of taxpayers’ resources to produce.

Biu said part of the efforts put in place to deal with the challenges was the idea of taking the message of safety down to the motor parks quite early due to the critical role the union officials play on the road as a prelude to massive deployment of personnel and logistics to the highways, particularly at the black spots for the containment of the perennial traffic gridlock and the accompanying hazards.

On his part, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Aloga Ogbodo, urged that the sale of alcohol be banned entirely from motor parks.

He warned that accidents should be avoided at all costs as it affects the economy of the country as well as humanity.

Speaking at the event, the representative of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Com. Yusuf Alabi, said part of the problem came from drivers who were retired from civil service and took up transport driving as a retirement plan.

He alleged that most of them take hard substances to work because they were always thinking and worried about delayed payment of their gratuity.

He urged every driver to embark on their journey without hard substances as their eyes get clearer, adding that drivers should reduce speed while travelling as there was no need for the rush.