Transport Stakeholders Seek Safer Roads

Stakeholders in the transport sector yesterday in Abuja proffered solutions to frequent road crashes and safer roads for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in the country.

At a national stakeholders’ workshop on low speed in urban areas, a programme used to mark the 8th Global Road Safety Week, the permanent secretary, FCT Transport Secretariat, Okonkwo Florence, expressed disappointment with the level of implementing simple road safety rules across the country.

She said there was need for political will and total cooperation from citizens in order to meet  the international standard of ensuring safer roads with less crashes.

Also speaking, the representative of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kayode Ajayi, while speaking on the topic, “The problem with speeding in Nigeria”, warned against over-speeding, noting that speed violation is one of the major causes of road crashes in Nigeria.

He said economically, speeding increases the consumption of fuel and the more a car speeds, the more risky it is exposed to road crashes and fatalities.

The chief executive of Ochenuell Mobility, Dr. Emmanuel John, said data from the FRSC showed that about 2,800 to 3,000 road crash deaths were pedestrians and cautioned motorists against over-speeding.

He further said over-speeding is the major cause of road crashes as it is responsible for 40 per cent of all crashes while speed related issues such as wrong overtaking, tyre burst and others were responsible for  30 per cent of road crashes.

Offering, John called for introduction of car-free zones in some designated areas in the FCT as  is obtainable in major cities across the world.

He also called for the full implementation of 30 kilometer per hour speed limit on intercity roads as adopted by Nigeria at the National Council on Transportation meeting in 2023.

He said for some of the policies to work, there must be effective transport systems like availability of public businesses and good train network systems.

As part of the programme, Dr John and his group donated road signs to the FCT for the 30km intercity roads.