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SAFETY ON LAGOS ROADS: FALASHA APPEALS TO DRIVERS, EMPLOYERS TO MAKE USE OF THE STATE’S DRIVERS’ INSTITUTES
Posted on: 2013-04-18 00:00:00
·         As Governor launches audiovisual training disc on road safety regulations for drivers



Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Wednesday appealed to drivers in Lagos, especially professional drivers and their employers to make use of the State’s Drivers’ Institutes as a means to update the currency of their driving skills and fitness.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the LTV Blue Roof Multi-purpose Hall, Agidingbi, venue of the public presentation of a Drivers’ Education Multilingual Training Aid (Defensive Driving), said there was need for constant update of driving skills and visual acuity by road users in Lagos as a result of the vehicular density of the State.  

The Governor, who put the vehicular density of Lagos at 224 vehicles per kilometre as against the national average vehicular density of about 15 vehicles per kilometre, explained, “It means that almost every minute you have to react to the next vehicle. So your skills have to be sharper, your reaction has to be quicker and your judgment has to be faster and you have to reduce your risk predisposing factors”.

“I want to implore all drivers, especially professional drivers, employers of drivers, schools and those types of institutions, offices, banks businesses, to send their drivers to our drivers’ institutes to check their sights, to check the currency of their skills. There are so many who cannot see but they drive and they risk not only their own lives but the lives of other road users”, the Governor said.

Urging the drivers to take advantage of the Drivers’ Institutes, Governor Fashola declared, “As a government, we have fulfilled our promise. We now have five of them, one in Ikeja, that is the one in Oshodi, one in Epe, Ikorodu, one in Badagry and one in Lagos Island and they are as good as you can have them anywhere in the world, that is what we have done with your tax. You have seen from the documentary (shown during the programme) people have come from far and wide to see what we have done here at home”.

Governor Fashola quoted statistics of the number of deaths that result from road traffic accidents in Nigeria saying the records have shown that the number is greater that deaths from Malaria and other common diseases.

“The MD of Shell Nigeria Ltd Mr. Mutiu Sumonu has identified road traffic deaths as one of the major causes of deaths among ten to 19 year olds in Nigeria. So, our young children, after all the pains of pregnancy, after all the risks of pregnancy, after all the sleepless nights, after immunizing them against disease, after investing in their education, between ten to 19, we suddenly lose them to the thing we can avoid, a road traffic accident”, the Governor said.

According to him, “Report shows also that Nigeria has the highest road traffic accident fatalities amongst 193 countries in the world. This was the report quoted by the Hon Minister for Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu. It also shows that Nigeria records about 162 deaths per 100,000 people”.

“Earlier this month, there was a road tragedy on the Benin – Ore Road and about 100 people died. Just as we were recovering from that, there was another road accident in Damaturu – Gusau Road and about 20 people were killed immediately. Recently about another 17 people died on the Abuja-Lokoja Highway. This is about 150 people in such a short time. I am not sure that within the same time AIDS has killed that much people in Nigeria”, the Governor said.

“This is why we are here today. I think that government must do something about it and Lagos State Government wants to be that government. There is a lot that you can do to keep yourself safe and I will share that with you. I shared last year’s figures with you. Have we improved?”, the Governor asked.

Governor Fashola noted that road traffic accident is a global problem but which has a local impact “because many people die across the world from road traffic accidents and Nigeria is no exception and Lagos is also affected”, pointing out that it is the heart of his own job, “to keep people alive and protect property”.

 “It is the primary responsibility that every government has and it is the most important responsibility of any responsible government”, the Governor said adding that his administration has done and is still doing a lot to fight such killer diseases like Malaria, Polio and others.

“Everywhere you will see positive action of government, of voluntary societies about how to roll back Malaria. You see advertisements about anti-Malaria drugs, you see adverts about insecticides, you see advertisements about mosquito nets, you hear about foundations campaigning against Malaria, Polio and HIV. But the truth is that it is not disease alone that is killing our people. It is avoidable things like safety on the roads, accidents, that is killing them”, the Governor said.

Warning against non-compliance to traffic regulations, Governor Fashola declared, “I have said to everybody who cares to listen that the automobile, the car, is not a toy. It is a machine and like every machine, you must learn how to use it. Every machine, including automobile, comes with a manual but unfortunately not many people read it. Every vehicle comes with owner’s manual. So you are operating a machine that you do not know anything about and you are putting your life and those of the children in it at risk”.

“Yes we need to build good roads, we need to build safer roads. But safer roads also attract people to speed. So if you are going to speed, you must know what a safe speed is. If there is a seatbelt in an air plane and you will put it on why would you not put on the one in your car?, he asked.

The Governor continued, “Why do you drivers want to drive after you have taken your “energizers”? You are not different from either a pilot or the captain of a ship. People entrust their lives on you and you must show that you are worthy of that trust in the way you dress, in the way you carry yourself, in the way you speak to them. You have to take control, it is your business and your work environment and it can only be as good as you make it”.

The Governor said his administration has done a lot since 2007 to improve road traffic in the State and safety of lives and property on the roads including fulfilling the promise he made to build drivers’ institute across the State where drivers’ could be trained and retrained to acquire and update their skills and fitness to drive from time to time.

“There are so much that we have done as a government but they will mean nothing if you don’t do your part. We have built roads; we have put road signs across Lagos. In the last half of last year, no less than 17,000 road signs were introduced in the streets of Lagos. But I wonder how many of us read them or how many of us even know what they mean”, the Governor said.

According to the Governor, “Our administration takes the business of saving life very seriously. It is what informed our decision to set up a trauma centre at the Toll Gate here; because no matter how hard we try, I know that accidents will happen and the difference between life and death sometimes is how quickly the victim receives blood transfusion, how quickly he gets medical help, how quickly he gets emergency care to stabilize him or her and to reduce trauma”.

Highlight of the event was the launch of the Drivers’ Education Multilingual Audio-visual Training Aid (Defensive Driving), an audiovisual manual done in the major basic Nigerian languages including English and pigin, and dealing on preliminaries of driving, the traffic, the right of way, driving on the expressway and adverse conditions.

Three beneficiaries of the Drivers’ Institute each of whom spoke in one the three major Nigerian languages, commended the State Government, describing the institutes as a well thought out innovation aimed at elevating the driving skills and fitness of all those who enroll in them.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Drivers Institute (LASDRI), Mr. Ayodeji Peter Oyedokun, in his remarks earlier, gave an insight into the challenges that confronted the trainers at the beginning of the programme in 2009 saying they could not train the drivers in the conventional way so they had to use audio-visuals to train them.

The Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, said the purpose of the Defensive Driving programme  was to intimate the drivers and stakeholders with the progress the institutes have made in bringing relief to the perennial traffic situation and safety on the States road’s.

Also present at the occasion were the Deputy Governor, Hon. (Mrs.) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, members of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), officers of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Vehicle Inspection Officers and other Transportation stakeholders.



HAKEEM BELLO