With massive movements of people and goods across the country towards the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has appealed to the motoring public to make safety their watchword during the celebrations to minimise crashes and deaths during the periods. According to Bisi Kazeem, Corps Public Education Officer , FRSC , he stated this in his Christmas message in which he congratulated all the Christians in Nigeria on the successful celebration, urging them to see the feast beyond mere merriment.
According to the FRSC Boss, Christmas provides humanity with opportunity to engage in deep reflections over the realities of life, saying the birth of Christ brought with it messages of love, peace and salvation. He stresses the need for people to demonstrate the loving nature of Jesus Christ through their attitudes to one another especially in driving and sharing road with other users.
The Corps Marshal assured members of the public of the high level of preparedness of the FRSC to ensure safer road environments for road travellers during the festive periods and beyond through a number of measures. He however called for cooperation from relevant stakeholders and members of the public to make the initiatives put in place by the Corps most successful, saying road safety is a shared responsibility of all.
Oyeyemi particularly expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for its renewed commitment to road rehabilitation works and opening up of new ones across the country as witnessed lately, noting that such measures have significantly assisted FRSC in carrying out its traffic management responsibilities more effectively. He enumerated some of the measures put in place for effective traffic management by the Corps during the celebrations to include massive deployment of FRSC personnel and logistics to identified black spots, establishment of additional help areas and roadside clinics as well as deployment of monitors from the National Headquarters to ensure that no excuse was given for avoidable crashes, obstructions and deaths during the celebrations.
“Every stakeholder must support these initiatives in the spirit of shared nature of effective road traffic management,” he stated.
“Furthermore, Zebra formations as well as Road Traffic Crash Clinics and all FRSC facilities across the country would be available to road users to ensure their convenience and quick response to distress calls to all emergencies,” the Corps Marshal added.
Oyeyemi further disclosed that as part of community involvement in road traffic management and efficient rescue operations, participants of the Community Crash Respondents Scheme have been fully mobilised in anticipation of road mishaps in some of the identified locations. He added that the initiative was meant to decentralise participation in rescue operations and ensuring efficient post crash care, bearing in mind that FRSC personnel cannot be everywhere at all times.
The Corps Marshal thanked all stakeholders including members of the law enforcement agencies as well as transport unions for supporting the FRSC personnel who are engaged in traffic management across the country. He particularly appealed to convoy drivers to exercise restraint while moving in congested areas as their attempt to shunt could undermine whatever traffic arrangements that had already been put in place for effective movement of people and vehicles.
He urged the drivers to avoid such offences as overloading, speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, noting that offences of route violation, traffic light violation and dangerous driving would continue to attract psychological evaluation of the perpetrators at the federal government medical facilities, while Mobile Courts are already in place to try recalcitrant offenders for immediate court judgements.
The FRSC Boss thanked members of the press for the enormous role they have continued to play in disseminating road safety information to members of the public and expressed optimism that the partnership will be sustained beyond the festive periods. He called on members of the public to immediately notify FRSC of any road mishaps, obstruction and other emergencies through the toll free line: 122 for prompt response.
