SPEED LIMIT DEVICE: A MUST FOR TRUCKS IN NIGERIA
Speed
is one of the most common contributing factors of traffic crashes in
Nigeria. In 2002, World Health organization
and World Bank made
available data that indicate that road traffic injuries were the 11th
leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 23% of all injury
deaths nationwide. In another report, it is stated that 90% of road
traffic deaths occurred in low income and middle income countries where
5098 million or 80% of the world’s population live. It is expected that
road traffic injuries will become 8th leading cause of death by year
2030 if nothing is done to reverse this trend (source click).
The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC on their part, said a total of
12, 077 road crashes were recorded across the country in 2015, the News
Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports. According to the Corp Marshal, Boboye
Oyeyemi, “out of 12,077 road crashes
recorded in 2015 5,400 people representing 65 per cent of those
involved in the crashes lost their lives”.
It
is imperative that for this trend to be curbed, the government of
Nigeria needs to put a speed limit to all heavy duty trucks plying our
major roads because it has being observed over the years that if an
accident occur involving a truck,
there is a tendency of high mortality, destruction of property/goods
worth millions, a hug traffic gridlock and collision with other smaller
vehicles.
However,
the good news is that the Federal Road Safety Commission of Nigeria has
rolled out policies and programs to enforce the use of speed limit device amongst all vehicles in Nigeria come February 1st, 2017. They are committed to ensuring that all vehicles comply with the implementation of the speed limit device especially the Heavy duty trucks.
The FRSC vision is to ensure that Heavy Duty Trucks maintains a speed
of 60 km/hr, Cars 100km/hr and Commercial Vehicle 90km/hr while
traveling.
I
am very optimistic that if this policy is pursued with a sound
political will, it will reduce the rate of road accidents, road crash
fatality, economic loss and delay due to accident-traffic. It is my
belief that all heavy duty truck owners will comply with this policy for
the sake of safety of their trucks/goods and also to bring safety back to our roads.
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