The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that 3200 persons were killed in road accidents caused by articulated vehicles, tankers and trailers, across the country between 2015 to 2018.
Speaking on Wednesday in Lagos at a sensitisation rally which had as it’s theme, “Truck Transit Park: A Panacea For Crash Free Haulage Operation In Nigeria”, the FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi said 3,226 tankers and trailers were involved in accidents between 2015 -2018.
Oyeyemi who was represented by the Assistant Corp Marshal of the FRSC, Victor Nwokolo at the event jointly put together by the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and the FRSC, attributed the road crashes to driver’s fatigue, over-speeding and drunk driving which he said would be addressed if the TTPs come to being.
According to Oyeyemi, while delivering a paper titled: Improving Road Safety In Haulage Operations Through Truck Transit Scheme, “between 2015 to 2019, 3,226 articulated accidents have led to death of 3200 Nigerians while 12,474 people were wounded.”
Giving details, he explained that, “979 persons were killed in articulated vehicles related accidents in 2015; 910 in 2016; 737 in 2017 and 574 in 2018.”
The FRSC Corp Marshall added that “Establishment of TTPs is key towards improving road safety and security of cargo. Statistics showed that the country has recorded several cases of road traffic crashes involving tankers/trailers from haulage businesses with causes ranging from driver’s fatigue, over speeding and drinking while driving. These have triggered the idea of TTPs for drivers to properly take care of themselves while on transit.”
Speaking earlier, the Executive Secretary of the NSC, Hassan Bello said about 41 per cent of articulated truck accidents were found to have been caused by fatigue.
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Bello who was represented by the Director, Special Duties, Samuel Abu Vongtau said the TTPs is a place designed to provide temporary rest place for drivers.
In his words, “it has been discovered that the main problems drivers complain about is 39 per cent fatigue-related while main causes of road crashes are 41 per cent fatigue-related. This is because most drivers sleep for just 4hours in every 24hours. This underscores the fact that safe and clean truck transit stops are needed.”
The Shippers’Council boss stated that the TTPs is one of the 114 Agriculture and Transportation project under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) focus labs that was organised by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Bello who urged truck drivers to patronise the functional Sunshine city TTP in Ondo, added that additional 10 TTPs are being built across the country.
“Under the Nigerian Shippers’ Council’s TTPs project, the following locations have been identified for the establishment of TTPs, Port Novo Creek, Lagos state; Ogere, Ogun state; Onitsha Anambra state; Mararaban Jos, Kaduna state; Lokojq, Kogi state.
“Others are Obollo Afor, Enugu state; Benin By-pass, Edo state; Aviele, Edo state; Ilele, Sokoto state and Ore, Ondo state. A modern park has already been developed at Ore (Sunshine City) in collaboration with the Ondo state government. I encourage truck operators to patronise this park for optimum use,” the NSC Boss stated.
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