40% of road crashes caused by commercial drivers – FRSC

Posted by admin Headlines Friday, August 17th, 2012

THE Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Osita Chidoka has expressed worry over the reckless attitude of commercial drivers to road traffic regulations, explaining why the corps had to withhold issuance of the new Commercial Driver’s licence to them.

Specifically, Chidoka said commercial drivers were responsible for about 40 per cent of road crashes witnessed in the country on a daily basis because of their poor driving habits.

Chidoka said this on Thursday in Abuja when the National President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin, led a delegation of national and state officials of the union on courtesy call to him.

He spoke just as the leadership the union challenged the FRSC on strict enforcement passenger manifest by commercial bus drivers.

The corps marshal said it was observable that most commercial drivers plied the highways without recourse to road traffic regulations, adding that some of them still engaged in drunk-driving, dangerous overtaking or were incompetent to drive in spite of the corps’ safety campaigns.

Chidoka said these factors were responsible for high rate of road traffic accidents despite the efforts of the FRSC to curb the menace.

He said the corps in January this year, set out to reduce road traffic accident by 50 per cent in 2012 but unfortunately records by the middle of the year indicated that road traffic crashes increased by 26 per cent.

via Tribunewp_posts