NAN-DS-9
Training
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, Dec.19,2016 (NAN) The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Monday said plans were underway to organise two month-training for articulated vehicles’ drivers in the country to check tanker and truck accidents on the highways.
The Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, said while answering questions from newsmen in Abuja that government was worried about recent crashes involving tankers.
Oyeyemi said from January to date, 283 crashes involving tankers alone were recorded that destroyed lives and property and degraded the environment.
He said this prompted the FRSC to plan to train articulated vehicles drivers in January 2017 in 12 locations nationwide so as to educate them on safety measures and compliance with the minimum safety standards.
“If you look at the present market value of the articulated vehicles, the tanker head is about N32 million, the tanker itself is about N7.5 million, the tyres which are 16 are about N3.2 million.
“By the time you include the insurance, registration and other things the cost is about N50 million today .
“If you multiply 283 tankers involved in the crash so far this year,that is about N14.15 billion has been lost, excluding damages to the environment to lives involved and other vehicles,” he said.
Oyeyemi said the reason for these crashes most of the time was the old nature of the vehicles, adding that some of them were over 30 years and they were supposed to be off the road.
Oyeyemi said that 80 per cent of the tanker accidents was also due to brake failure and because the drivers allowed their boys to drive.
The corps marshal said that the order restricting tankers from night driving would be stepped down this season to allow for free movement of products to avoid shortage.
He also said that there would be checks for drivers to ensure that they were free from the influence of drugs and alcohol and ensure the tyres and head lamps were good.
Oyeyemi then called for the establishment of articulated driving schools as there were limited schools to train such drivers.
He said that out of the 1,168 driving schools in the country, only one was training articulated drivers and encouraged retired engineers and Vehicle Inspection Officers to set up more driving schools.(NAN)
ATAB/ORO/AMY
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Edited by Razak Owolabi/Abdullahi Yusuf