The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, have barred trucks without safety valves from operating on Nigerian roads.
Boboye Oyeyemi, the FRSC, marshall, made this known on Thursday, September 24, 2020, at the Truck Renewal Conference 2020 in Abuja.
He revealed that the corps has perfected plans for the full auditing of the over 10, 000 trucks that ply Nigerian roads.
The theme of the conference, which the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN organized in Abuja was the “Truck Renewal System.”
He attributed to the inferno that engulfed the truck which fell in Felele- Lokoja, Kogi State of Wednesday, to lack of a safety valve in the petrol laden articulated vehicle.
According to him, the accident was due to loss of control which followed the driver’s loss of sight.
He called on MOMAN and the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, to train and retrain their drivers.
His words: “What happened on Wednesday was that a driver just lost control. He was not seeing. That was a lack of concentration early in the morning. And he just wasted lives and properties.”
He said that the absence of weight bridges on the highway was partly responsible for the accidents, adding that some of the trucks were carrying double of what they ought to convey.
Oyeyemi said 90 percent of the trucks that are plying the country’s highways are already over 30 years.
He revealed that in Nigeria records 90 deaths per week on her highways.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki said that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva has already revealed that the government is taking measures to phase out trucks that are not road-worthy from the conveyance of petroleum product.
Angela Keyede, the assistant director of Mass Transit, Administration, who represented her, urged the stakeholders to also bring the conversion of vehicles from petrol to Compressed Natural Gas fueling to the fore.
Saraki insisted that going forward “as a way of enhancing transport safety in our Country, our drivers, particularly truck drivers must exhibit a positive attitude while driving.”
She said the replacement of old sub-standard trucks with modern trucks equipped with safety devices for the transportation of petroleum products is an alternative that must be followed by Road Transport Unions & Associations.
According to her, “most of these accidents are caused by human factors such as the use of cell phones while driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or a dangerous substance, disregards for road signage, dangerous driving/overtaking, overspending, overloading and use of trucks that ought to be off the roads.”
Source: The Nation
