The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Sector Commander for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nseobong Charles Akpabio, is furious. He is furious because motorists in the territory are giving deaf ears to safety measures on the roads. He has decided to employ the horsewhip strategy by proposing the introduction of more speed breakers near some junctions in the city.
The speed breakers recently put in strategic junctions in Abuja on the orders of Alhaji Muhammad Adamu Aliero, FCT Minister, is presently being greeted with serious complaints by some motorists. They claim that the speed breakers were causing defects and damages to their vehicles.
However, Akpabio said motorists should get used to those speed breakers because unless they change their orientations on over speeding, government would soon flood the entire Abuja roads with speed breakers. The Abuja FRSC boss said it was better for those vehicles to have defects or damages than to cause accidents and kill innocent people.
He told Daily Sun in an exclusive interview in Abuja, that the few speed breaker devices currently found around some junctions in the city were just a pilot project by the FCT Administration which is bent on flooding the entire Abuja roads at intervals with speed breakers until motorists change their behaviours and begin to adapt to required speed limits at designated points in the territory.??He said government’s decision was predicated upon the recurrent accidents in the territory, most of which have been blamed on over speeding and the fact that government is tired of loosing its innocent citizens to road crashes. The pains of the recurrent crashes, the corps commander said, forced him to undertake a research that uncovered the underlying factors that are responsible for the crashes:
“The speed breakers that you see in town are the products of this office. Like I told you, we decided to carry out a research and over 79 black spots were found in the FCT and some of these are at these junctions. So we carried out a study at five of these junctions and found out what to do at the end of the day. The thing worked. So we sold the idea to the minister through the Transport Secretary. I was informed that the minister did not object to it.
“So anything that would be done to reduce accidents in the FCT, the minister accepted and said we should go ahead and install the speed breakers. And I want to say here without mincing words that since the government installed the speed breakers in all the junctions that were recommended, it is ongoing project, those places they have been installed so far, we have not yet recorded any crash, which means that speed is the problem. Initially, when the things were installed people were complaining that it is not good. I said no, let them be there.
“Now, we have received more than 20 calls from people commending our efforts on that introduction. Some people are complaining that this is highway and that people are dying on the highway. Which is better: for people to die or your vehicle to have defect? Go and repair your vehicle. If you have good vehicle maintenance you will not complain. Once you approach any speed breaker, you slow down, roll over and you are off. Definitely, it is better for the car to spoil than lives lost. But if you reduce the speed of your vehicle, the car will not spoil.
“People must complain, let them complain. We too ply those roads with our vehicles. We have patrol vehicles and the speed breakers have not spoilt our vehicles. Reduce the speed of your vehicle and then continue. Those who don’t want to obey rules and regulations are those that have problems. It is better for that car to have a defect. You go and repair it, than for another person to die. And I think, those speed breakers are temporary. They are not there forever. They will be removed when the psychology of people have changed. People must first understand that they have to drive responsibly.”
Indiscipline
“Vehicles on the roads would not just crash. Accident is caused by the person driving the vehicle. Any motorist, whether you are driving a small vehicle or big vehicle, whether you are a commercial, government or private driver, you need to be disciplined. It is indiscipline that causes crashes on the roads. If you know quite well that your vehicle is not road worthy, don’t attempt to put that vehicle on the road. That crash that happened at Kugbo few weeks ago was due to lack of vehicle maintenance. The driver said he told the owner of the vehicle that the break was not good but he was asked to just manage and go to the place and the driver also managed a truck with a faulty break. So definitely the issue is indiscipline. People should learn to be disciplined while using the roads.
“Don’t drive above the speed limit. Don’t drive dangerously. If everybody driving in the FCT can go at a speed limit of 60 kilometres or?less than that, definitely, all these crashes would not have been there. If at all there would be accident, it would be very minimal. But because they are going at a speed of 120, 140 and above, they crash. If that happens, the effect becomes so serious that it sometimes becomes fatal. So we want to advise everybody that it is better for you to drive and stay alive.”
Highway hawkers
Akpabio regretted that highway hawkers have become a serious nightmare. Despite the good road networks, hold- ups along the roads are still the telltale of motorists’ indiscipline in the FCT. He said the illegal activities and indiscipline by some motorists who pull over at unacceptable spots to pick or off load passengers as well as patronize highway hawkers and people who display goods at various junctions along these highways are the bane of traffic problems in FCT.??The FRSC boss warned that nobody had any right to display goods at junctions along highways or pack to obstruct traffic flow. Stressing that he would approach the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to look into those displaying goods at night at these junctions, Akpabio, who said government would not accept such behaviour, disclosed that those sellers were also having a good time because they have identified their market.
Operation Sanity
“The command recognizing that we are at the centre of activities, centre of the nation and are being supervised virtually by all agencies of government, we decided to increase the tempo of our activities in town. We introduced what we call Operation Sanity to help carry out motorized patrols and check the excesses of drivers, mostly those people who drive against the traffic, those who drive above speed limits and those who are not supposed to be on the road by virtue of their age and the types of vehicles they use, rickety vehicles. We also check the excesses of drivers who are receiving or making calls while driving and those who refuse to put on seat belt while driving and most other offences.
“From January to August this year, over 1,300 offenders have been prosecuted by the mobile court outside those people who are made to go and pay fines. Our figure shows that we have almost 10,000 plus in this category. So, over 1,300 have been?prosecuted by the Mobile Court for committing over 1,391 offences. Out of those people who were charged to mobile court, 1,252 were convicted by the Mobile Court. Of that number, a number of them served various jail terms in Kuje Prison. However, 32 drivers were discharged and acquitted. So these are parts of our preparation towards the ember month operations commencing this month. Anybody driving dangerously in the FCT or driving above the speed limit or driving against the traffic or carrying excess passengers, overloading, will not be allowed to go free.
“About four of the offenders arrested paid fines and left. They committed the same offence again. So we arrested and charged them to court. One of them just came back today from prison. In fact, he went to court to challenge the sentence passed on him. He was given three weeks imprisonment with hard labour and to pay a fine of N53,000. So this man went to the High Court challenging the jurisdiction of the lower court. You know, the High Court of Abuja struck out the case that they had no case at all to bring up here. That man still finished his jail term. He came back today and he has paid his fine. This particular driver crashed into Corps Marshal’s convoy and he thought that it was the normal thing to do. You know the civil way Corps Marshal’s convoy drives. They don’t put on siren to drive people away. He just goes at normal driving. Imagine, you see one, two, three or four?vehicles, the same type of vehicles
From: UBONG UKPONG.
No comments:
Post a Comment