AYODELE Kumapayi, the Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Anambra, has said that the command will soon begin road worthiness checks on trucks and articulated vehicles in the state.
Kumapayi said this on Monday at a town hall meeting with members of various truck and articulated vehicle associations in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the state.
He said that the operation would begin state-wide with effect from April 1.
He said that the measure was designed to contain the increasing rate of road accidents, involving heavy duty trucks and articulated vehicles in the state.
He said: “Over-speeding are actually the causes of most road crashes in the state.
“A majority of the trucks that pass through the state over-speed and are not road worthy.
“They should not exceed 45 kilometers per hour.”
The sector commander said that the multiple accidents recorded a week ago at Upper Iweka and Umuchu areas of the state were caused by articulated vehicles on speed.
He said that the commission would collaborate with the state government to ensure that similar incidents did not occur again.
“We cannot fold our arms and allow vehicles to kill people on a daily basis. Our goal is to have zero level road crashes in the state,” Kumapayi said.
He also cautioned motorists against parking their vehicles along the highways, saying that indiscriminate parking of vehicles usually obstructed free flow of traffic.
He said that the commission was determined to ensure that drivers of haulage vehicles in the area complied with traffic rules and regulations.
He solicited their cooperation on road safety.
Kumapayi said that the meeting was one of the strategies mapped out by the command to arrest the incessant road accidents in the state.
In his remarks, Mr Chris Uzoechina, the Managing Director of Anambra Traffic Management Agency, warned the drivers against driving against traffic.
Uzoechina said that any driver arrested driving against traffic in any part of the state would be subjected to psychiatric test.
He said that the agency and FRSC would commence joint operations to decongest the Onitsha–Enugu Expressway.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the Haulage Contractors Association of Nigeria (HCA) and Association of Allied International Beer and Beverage Drivers (AAIBD) attended the meeting.
Also in attendance were members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria.
In their separate remarks, the state chairmen of AAIBD and HCA, Mr Sunday Nwokocha and Chief Benjamin Ibeadua, commended FRSC for organizing the meeting.
Nwokocha appealed to the state government to provide more safety road signs, especially on the slopy portion of the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway.
“Another problem we have is overloading by haulage vehicle drivers, which we want the FRSC to tackle,” Nwokocha said.
Also, Ibeadua appealed to the state government to take urgent steps to fix bad portions of roads in the state to reduce road crashes. -NAN

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– Mar. 25, 2019 @ 18:10 GMT /