The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dauda Ali Biu has ordered operatives of the Corps to impound any articulated vehicle carrying human beings and animals together.
The order was handed down by Ali Biu following Sunday’s killing of 18 persons in a crash involving an articulated vehicle on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.
Apart from those who died in the Sunday crash, 27 other passengers sustained injuries in the accident that involved 65 persons.
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The crash occurred at about 5:20 a.m. when the driver of the articulated vehicle, overloaded with goods and humans and travelling at high speed lost control and fell into a ditch on the highway.
“To reverse the trend, all Sector Commanders are to set up joint task forces to impound trailers and trucks carrying humans and animals.
“The courts should prosecute the drivers,’’ Biu was quoted to have said in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by FRSC’s Public Education Officer, Deputy Corps Marshal Bisi Kazeem.
According to Kazeem, Biu further instructed that the sector commanders should set up joint task forces in collaboration with sister agencies to conduct special operations to end the practice.
Mr Biu also noted that it was necessary for agencies like the Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Army, and Vehicle Inspection Officers among others, to collaborate and curb the menace.
The FRSC Corps Marshal described Sunday’s accident as avoidable and decried the nonchalant attitude of drivers who could not be bothered about simple traffic rules.