By Andy Esiet, Calabar
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has flag off its Ember months safety campaign in Calabar identifying speed as being responsible for 60 percent of road accidents in Nigeria in the past 10 years.
The Zonal Commander FRSC, South South, Mr Chidiebere Ngwonta who said this at this year’s Ember months campaign flag off and operation zero special patrol in Calabar on October 7, with the theme; “Maintain Safe Speed, Avoid Night Travel and Enjoy Quality Road Experience”, charged motorists to drive with great caution.
He said that road mishaps on our roads during the Ember months “may be attributed to a number of reasons which is directly or indirectly linked to individual perfection, stressing that this action usually lay behind a trail of irreparable damage and lost including human lives and material resources”.
According to him, the FRSC over time “has approached it systematically through the platform of special intervention patrol such as the Ember months operations to compliment other effective operations aimed to achieve zero tolerance in accident on our roads.
“As the Lead Agency in road safety administration and traffic management in Nigeria, this presents a unique road safety concern to us and to the people whom we are established to protect from the debilitating effects of road traffic consequences in Nigeria,”.
In his address at the event, the state Deputy Governor, professor Ivara Esu said the Ember months used to be notorious because of road accidents and commended the initiators of the event for living up to the expectations of keeping the road safe.
He maintained that ” road safety is a cardinal aspect of our development index, promising that as a government the state would do everything possible to safeguard it to reduce casualties on our roads”.
Esu gave the assurance that they enlightenment campaign will archive more than the 15% reduction in road traffic crisis and 20% in fatality rate as recommended by the United Nations decades of action on road safety.
He called on drivers to imbibe road safety measures on our roads as a lot depend on them stressing that it is only the living that can celebrate.
On his part, the State’s Sector Commander Mr Ocheja Ameh said the state command is partnering with the major stakeholders for a successful programme during the Ember months to keep our roads safe during the Ember months and beyond.
