In a move to reduce road crashes in the country, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has updated its Zonal Commanding Officers on how to successfully enforce the use of Speed Limiting Devices (SLD).
Speaking at a Strategic Session with the officers in Abuja on Monday, FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, said it was important to key all the commanding officers of the commission into the SLD policy to ensure that they were properly informed on the best practice and challenges.
Oyeyemi said that the session with the officers became necessary considering that speed accounted for 50.8 per cent of road crashes in the country in 2014.
He said that in view of the large road network, a huge land mass, and a vehicular density of 8.5 million in the country, it required proper planning for road traffic accidents to reduce.
“Implementation of SLD policy requires proper planning and FRSC is very mindful of that.
“Speed accounted for 50.8 per cent of road crashes in 2014; that informed the adoption of the policy by all critical stakeholders in order to stem the crash.
“Nigeria has 204,000km road network, 924,000 sq km land mass and vehicular density of 8.5million, which requires proper planning.
“The policy has got the support of the current administration and the deadline of April 2016 is final.
“Enforcement of SLD policy will be in phases, starting with commercial vehicles in April, while other vehicles will follow suit later.
“We are nurturing the commission to a greater height by building the capacity of its personnel from time to time.’’
The enforcement of the use of the device is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2016 following Federal Government’s approval of the policy in November.
According to the FRSC chief, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has certified 16 operators that will handle the installation of the speed limiting devices in vehicles nationwide.
The corps marshal expressed appreciation to the stakeholders in the road sector for their support and understanding, saying the agency would continue to carry them along in its activities.
12 Zonal Commanding Officers attended the strategic session.
Some of them, who spoke with newsmen after the session, said that they would communicate the decisions taken at the event to the sector commanders.
According to him, the same information will be passed down to all other officers of the commission.