Consumer Safety: FRSC warns against night travels, speeding

*Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps urges travellers must endeavour to avoid night trips due to poor visibility, excessive speed, and other unhealthy driving behaviours associated with driving during dark hours during the ‘ember months’

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

In the regulatory agency’s continued effort at protecting the lives and property of Nigerians, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has urged the citizenry to refrain from embarking on night travels in the last four months of the year.

ConsumerConnect reports the FRSC has cited poor visibility due to darkness and the increased number of road accidents emanating from nighttime travel and overspeeding.

Ali Biu, Acting Corps Marshall of the Corps, who gave this warning at a press conference, in Abuja, FCT, disclosed the FRSC is targeting minimal road crashes and zero fatalities during the last quarter of 2022.

The Corps has deployed massive personnel to all strategic roads across the nation, as part of the measures to achieve the target, said he.

Biu also stated: “Worthy of note is the alarming rate of crashes and fatalities that occur as a result of night trips.

“The most recent crashes and fatalities recorded by the FRSC happened on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogun State; a situation that has become worrisome and demands an urgent need to be brought to a halt.”

The FRSC Acting Corps Marshal further said: “During these ‘ember months,’ travellers must endeavour as much as possible to avoid night trips due to poor visibility, excessive speed, and other unhealthy driving behaviours associated with driving during dark hours on Nigerian roads.

He explained: “Travelling at night is risky for all road users, and this must be avoided to save lives.”

According to him, this is part of the measures put in place to guarantee a safer motoring environment, especially during the Ember Months.

Biu noted that the Corps also came up with the idea of special patrols and mega public enlightenment rallies in motor parks, which involve the massive deployment of personnel and logistics to motor parks for aggressive sensitisation and the roads, particularly around identified black spots, for the containment of the perennial traffic gridlocks and the accompanying hazards.

“Toward this year’s exercise, we embarked on elaborate studies along identified black spots to determine the immediate and remote causes of the gridlocks and to mobilise relevant stakeholders to collectively address the challenges and embark on public enlightenment programmes, he stated.

The Corps also came up with the idea of enhancing patrol operations by ensuring massive deployments of personnel and logistics along the major highways to minimise road crashes and achieve zero fatalities during the period.

Biu as well stated: “We urge drivers to avoid speeding, overloading, and the use of unsafe tyres. “Given our findings that speed-related road crashes account for over 70% of the causative factors of road crashes, the Corps has initiated measures of speed control in collaboration with various stakeholders.” Notable among these efforts, he noted, is the introduction of a speed limiting device as approved by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) with effective enforcement going on since 2015; and its compulsory usage by commercial drivers.

This resolve was orchestrated to ensure that speed-related crashes and the fatalities they cause are adequately reduced, according to the  Acting Corps Marshall.

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