Speed Limiter: Rehabilitate roads to enhance compliance — Drivers
NAN-H-100
Roads
By Taiye Edeni
Abuja, Sept. 28, 2016 (NAN) Ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline for the commencement of enforcement of the speed limiting device, commercial drivers in the FCT have appealed to the Federal Government to rehabilitate roads, to enhance compliance with the new policy.
Some of the commercial drivers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, accused the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) of apparently focusing more on revenue generation rather than safety.
Alhaji Abubakar Ustaz, the Chairman, Jabi Long Journey Taxi, advised the government to focus on how to repair bad roads in the country, than using drivers as an avenue for revenue generation.
Ustaz also claimed that FRSC was always introducing products to extort drivers.
According to him, some drivers faced a frustrating situation as they spent weeks at various parks waiting for their turn to load and still had to make returns, pay school fees and feed their families.
“FRSC should drop the idea of enforcement of this speed limit device because it might generate chaos from drivers that are already frustrated with the state of the economy.
“Government should focus more on rehabilitating the bad roads in the country then the possibility of compliance will be guaranteed.
“Ninety per cent of accidents involve private vehicles; just 10 per cent are commercial because we are conversant with the bad roads unlike private cars that don’t travel often.’’
Another driver, Sunday Adegoke, said that FRSC should drop the implementation of the speed limiter, insisting that the increase in road mishaps was caused by bad roads.
According to him, FRSC has always introduced new things to extort drivers.
“They introduced new number plate, reflector, decoder and now speed limiter which is above N30, 000.
“We will not accept that speed limit device; none of the drivers here have bought that device because we were told it is N40, 000; how much do we make in a week?
“We can barely feed; our children are still at home because we are yet to pay their school fees, and the country’s situation is frustrating.
“The device will damage our engine, except they want to kill us,” Adegoke said.
However, Olaolu Iroko, a long journey driver, said that they would comply, if the roads were good.
He noted that the bad roads had always limited their speed.
He said installing the device in their vehicles would further damage their engines because they would spend more days on the road, citing especially Jebba road.
According to him, the device will give armed robbers the advantage to rob them on the roads because it will limit their chances of escape.
NAN learnt that none of the long journey vehicles had installed the speed limit device. (NAN)
TY/COO/NKO
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(Edited by Cecilia Odey/Nkechi Okoronkwo)