By AbdulFatai Beki.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Kwara has arrested more than 50 commercial drivers for failure to install the Speed Limiting Device on their vehicles.
The FRSC Sector Commander in the state, Mr Sunday Maku, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in llorin on Wednesday
Maku said the violators were arrested across the three senatorial districts of the state while on their way to neighouring states.
He said enforcement of the device was a continuous exercise, and that it was aimed at reducing road accidents to the barest minimum.
He urged commercial drivers in the state to install the device on their vehicles to avoid arrest.
He said the command would further intensify its enlightenment campaign on the necessity of the use of the device by commercial drivers.
The Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Kwara branch, Alhaji Aliyu lssa- Ore, however, told NAN that the union’s members were not among the 50 arrested by the corps.
Issa-Ore said the union had been sensitising its members to the importance of the device to road safety.
NAN recalls that the FRSC said the concept of speed limiting was informed by the high rates of car crashes that occur on a daily basis in the country.
It noted that in recent times studies had proved that road traffic accidents claim more lives than the deadly Malaria Fever.
‘’ As part of its commitment to manage Road Traffic in Nigeria, Federal Road Safety Commission has identified speeding as a major contributing factor to the high level of Road Traffic Accidents and attendant causalities in Nigerian Roads,’’ it said.
it added that in a bid to create a safer motoring environment across the country, Federal Road Safety Commission in line with the resolutions reached with Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), National Automotive Design and Development Council of Nigeria (NADDC), and other stakeholders has made it compulsory for all vehicles nationwide especially and starting with commercial vehicles (buses, trailers, tankers and trucks) to install Speed Limiting Devices with a deadline of October 1st, 2016.
