Aerial surveillance as an experiment in traffic management
The choice of the university for the project was because of its functional centre which expertise is well recognised in the whole of the West African sub-region. What was however not clear to many staff of the Corps then was the feasibility of the project and the relevance of air support to FRSC’s recue and […]
The choice of the university for the project was because of its functional centre which expertise is well recognised in the whole of the West African sub-region. What was however not clear to many staff of the Corps then was the feasibility of the project and the relevance of air support to FRSC’s recue and operational strategies.
That doubt might have been cleared during the Corps’ recent operations designed to ensure crash and obstruction-free roads for all travellers during the last Christmas and new year celebrations. It was code-named “Operation Zero Tolerance to Road Traffic Crashes” and saw the introduction of aerial surveillance as an improvement over road patrol that the Corps had been used to. Many observers have since come to acknowledge the initiative as an important but hitherto ignored aspect of FRSC’s recue and operational plans. They therefore stressed the need for urgent introduction of air support programmes into the traffic management strategies of the Corps, if an effective and efficient road safety system is to be achieved for the country.
The aerial surveillance operations which commenced on 24 December, 2010 from the Presidential Wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, saw the utilisation of the Nigerian Air Force 109 Life Utility helicopter (NAF 109 LUH) and the Nigeria Police Force helicopter for the monitoring of road traffic movements and road conditions across the country. While the Corps Marshal utilised NAF 109 LUH, the Deputy Corps Marshal in charge of operations, Boboye Oyeyemi, flew in that of the Police Force.
The Corps Marshal, on taking off from Abuja, had a stopover at Lokoja, Kogi State to participate in road patrol activities along the Abuja-Lokoja and Lokoja-Okene road in company of some commanding officers of the Zone before heading for Enugu and other parts of the South East, where traffic volume was anticipated to be high. And from the air he was issuing directives, conveying information and taking notes of some road conditions in the areas covered.
In the second phase of the operations, he covered Enugu- Port Harcourt, Ore-Benin roads; 9th Mile and second Niger bridge and other traffic congested areas across the Southern parts of the country. The final phase of the exercise followed the same pattern before later terminating at Abuja on Monday, 3rd January, 2011.
The aerial operations was the first of its kind by the FRSC in its traffic management experiences and hailed by many as efficient, long overdue and necessary in modern traffic management system in Nigeria, especially during the busy periods of Christmas and new year celebrations. The smooth and obstruction-free road witnessed by commuters during the yuletide is a testimony to the success of the operations.
The Corps Marshal, while speaking with newsmen at Lokoja, Kogi State, on his experience in the operations said: “the success recorded so far by the Corps in this year’s operations were enhanced by the introduction of aerial surveillance”.
“We were able to cover longer distance of roads in shorter period of time and instantly conveyed our observations on traffic movements to the nearest patrol teams through our Call Centre for immediate action. This averted traffic holdups and resultant chaos that could have resulted, as our men, through such information, immediately put in place adequate measures to effectively manage the impending crisis”, he said.
There is no doubt that not only did the aerial support create opportunity of covering many parts of the country at a time and ensuring that prompt directives were issued to the men on ground based on observations made, the consciousness and huge public awareness on issues of road safety among youths and the elderly was overwhelming.
And as a teacher in one of the schools in Ore, Ondo state, where the helicopter landed for the Corps Marshal to inspect Benin- Ore road, put it in his excitement: “The children were not only excited at seeing the helicopter, but the Corps Marsha and most of them through this experience, will either want to become pilots or join Road Safety in future”.
As the exercise was rounding off on Monday, 3rd January 2011 and the helicopter was taxing to a halt at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, I observed that the expressions on the face of the Deputy Corps Marshal in charge of operations who came in company of other principal officers of the Corps to receive the Corps Marshal were that of one that was evidently satisfied with the huge success recorded in the operations.
While the Corps takes stock of this peculiar operations and plans ahead for future exercises, one major lesson that has been learnt is that, for effective management of road traffic in Nigeria, there must be harmony between the air and the road. And unless government deliberately plans to harmonise the safety and security of these two means of transportations through effective collaboration, we will continue to have a situation where air travellers who enjoy safety and security of air travel will become susceptible to road crashes and faced with a pathetic situation where after spending less than an hour from Lagos to Abuja airport, they would either crash on the road on be forced to spend more than three hours to get to the city centre as a result of road congestion, obstructions and holdups.
Abdullahi is a Route Commander with the FRSC and can be reached on [email protected].