The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has said that the agency is set to realise its target of reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatalities by 20 per cent this year.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, in Abuja.
Oyeyemi, in the statement, also ordered officers of FRSC to begin arrest and prosecution of owners/operators of rickety vehicles plying the nation’s highways.
“Riot act to the operators of the rickety vehicle forms part of the corps’ commitment to enhance the tempo of its operational activities and create a safer motoring environment in the country, premised on the realisation of its 2021 strategic goals of reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatalities by 20 per cent,” he stated.
But the Executive Director, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Paul Ndibe, explained to Financial Street that he expected FRSC to give details on what constituted a rickety vehicle or not, to enable the general public, the vehicle owners and even the enforcer know, so that everyone would be on the same page.
According to Ndibe, it will be difficult to just look at a car and declare it rickety, if there is no standard, as a vehicle can be considered rickety by an evaluator and not considered rickety by another.
His words, “A vehicle can be going on the road while the driver’s door is painted yellow and the passenger’s door is painted blue or any other color. From the look of such vehicle, one might say it’s rickety; meanwhile the vehicle might be sound in all aspects aside the colours of the doors and sometimes even the owner of such vehicle might not know if he/she is driving a rickety vehicle.”
He added that continuous efforts should be made to move out all broken down vehicles on the roads, to reduce traffic and accidents.
