Speed limit: FRSC arrests 5,700 vehicles in Ogun

FEDERAL Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said it has arrested about 5,700 vehicles in Ogun State in the last two months for not installing speed limit devises in their vehicles.

Ogun State Sector Commander of the Corps, Clement Oladele, disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking at the 10th Anniversary of Temidayo Ogan Child Safety and Support (TOCSS) Foundation, and the premiere of a new movie on road safety by the foundation,  titled, ‘Amigas’ held in Ikeja, Lagos.

According to Oladele, the corps makes arrest of average of 100 commercial vehicles per day since 1 February, 2017 since the commencement of speed limit enforcement in the country.

“For Ogun State, we do an average 100 everyday, so if you calculate from February 1 when we started it, you can know how many people have been involved,” he said.

According to Oladele, penalty for driving without speed limiter was multiple and be a fine of N3,000 or the corps could decide to detain the vehicle, insisting that such vehicle would only be released after the devise was fixed.

Yes, the penalty is multiple. We could decide when we stop you, and you don’t have speed limiter, we fine you. What the law says is that it is N3,000. We could even decide no, don’t pay N3,000, let us charge you to court, let the magistrate decide, use his wisdom to decide what your penalty is going to be.

“We could also detain your vehicle and insist that unless you fix the speed limiter, we would not allow you to go. So it varies, but the bottom line is that do not be caught on the wrong side of the law,” he said.

Oladele, however, maintained that the FRSC was determined to enforce the law to the letter.

Speaking further, Oladele disclosed that accident rate had gone down drastically in the country because of the proactiveness of the corps.

He said about 10,000 road crashes were recorded in 2016, out of which about 6,000 people died.

Also speaking, Executive Director, TOCSS Foundation, Temidayo Ogan, said the foundation had been self-sustaining all through its 10 years of existence, as it had continued to grow in leaps and bounds.

She charged parents and wards to ensure their children were strapped to seat belt or booster seats while driving their vehicles.

Ogan said her motivation to begin child safety campaign was when she had an accident in 2007 as she was driving with her child strapped to a booster seat, adding that both survived the accident because she was on seat belt and the child on booster seat.

She said decided since then to launch a foundation on child safety to create awareness on the need to protect the child from harm.

Also speaking, Assistant Corps Marshal, Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone 6, Port Harcourt, Jonas Agu, decried a situation where motorists flagrantly break traffic light, calling on motorists to exercise caution.

Jonas, in the keynote address he delivered, titled: “UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 3.6, our shared Responsibility,” said 1.25 million deaths were recorded annually from road crashes.

Agu said between 2011 and 2015, the average number of deaths from road crashes in Nigeria was put at 5,000 annually.