Trucks accidents: FG to construct 10 transit parks by 2019

The Federal Government is planning to construct over 10 trucks transit parks by 2019 in a bid to reduce the number of trucks induced accidents on Nigeria roads as a way to prevent the unnecessary loss of lives and property due road accidents.

Briefing the media the at conference for African Transportation Ministries, the Director for Road Transport and Mass Transit Administration, Anthonia Ekpa disclosed that government was planning to construct 10 transit parks for trucks which will serve as a rest point for the drivers.

She said: “In order for government to resolve the issue of trucking, we are working to ensure that both the trucks which are important are put in a particular location called the transit parks,” noting that the initiative will reduce the number of accidents trucks involved in as the heavy duty drivers will have a place to rest properly before entering the road.

ALSO READ: How to reduce road traffic accidents

The Director stated that apart from the accidents that occur due to tiredness, many trucks go against the law to convey certain products at wrong hours, “more enforcement is required to tackle the reckless of trucks drivers because this trucks are not supposed to carry certain products at certain times.”

Ekpa explained that the vision is to build transit parks in all the 36 states of the federation in subsequent years to come. “All Nigeria cities are going to have transit parks,” she concluded.

Also at the briefing, the Practice Manager of World Bank in Africa, Bnedict Eijbergen said funding had remained the major challenge of transport infrastructure in Africa. According to him, “funding is one of the critical challenges confronting the transport sector in Africa.”

He noted that ‎financing the transport sector was very expensive and African continent needed to adopt lower measures in order to enable them to build transport infrastructure and also be able to maintain them. The World Bank Manager said partnering with the private sector was viable option.

“The public sector can not finance everything, we need to look for a way to encourage the private sector to actively participate in the building of transport infrastructure in Africa.” He said that measures were being considered on how to generate funds for the sector at the conference.