By Kate Obande-Okewu
Abuja – The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has attributed the incessant road crashes in Nigeria to non-compliance with safety standards and traffic rules by stakeholders.
The SGF said this at the Stakeholders Forum on Haulage Transportation in Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.
He said that the decision of the summit stemmed from the rapid road crashes and high casualty rate of human and material resources currently being experienced in the country.
He explained that the forum also demonstrated the concern of the Federal Government to the incident that occurred on Otedola Bridge on June 28, which resulted in loss of 12 lives and 54 vehicles in an inferno.
“In spite of the implementation of safety measures by the Federal Road Safety Corps, the number of Road Traffic Crashes involving articulated vehicles continues to increase.
“This situation has been observed as mainly due to the apathy of stakeholders in keeping to safety standards and flagrant abuse of traffic safety rules.
“The rules include: Non-adherence to the Safe-Load Programme initiative, indiscriminate parking of vehicles along highways.
“Inadequate maintenance of vehicles, use of substandard fabricated tankers contrary to specified regulations of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria among others.
“This present situation is unacceptable to government and therefore calls for affirmative action to reverse the trend,” Mustapha said.
In his remarks, Sen. Gbenga Ashafa, Chairman Committee on Land Transport, said that the recent explosion of a tanker on the Otedola Bridge in Lagos had sadly reminded us of the need for action against road crashes.
“In order to solve the challenge of road traffic accident and fatalities involving articulated vehicles in Nigeria, there should be enforcement of stricter driving regulations on such vehicles.
“We must quickly adopt multi modal and inter-modal approach to freight and cargo transports across Nigeria, this entails functional rail access into our ports.
“This will enable majority of the cargo entering Nigeria to be conveyed by rail to the closest terminal to their final destination,” Ashafa said.
He added that, FRSC and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should collaborate to ascertain the safety conditions of tankers and road worthiness of the vehicles at the point of loading.
According to him, the safety condition will entail the issuance of safety certificate to each tanker for every trip to the depot without which such tanker should not be allowed to load.
He said that haulage companies should ensure training and re-training of their drivers, bearing in mind that the life of their drivers and other road users were of equal importance.
Also, Sen. Tijani Kaura, Chairman Senate Committee on Inter Governmental Affairs, commended the SGF for convening the summit.
Kaura said that statistics had showed that road crashes were the ninth major cause of death in Nigeria amongst other diseases, adding that three per cent of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product was lost annually to road accidents.
He urged the stakeholders at the summit to consider global interventions on road crashes and the magnitude of the accidents, its causes and measures that could be put in place to attack road crashes head on.
(NAN)