The flying vehicles on Nigerian roads (ll)

The exercise captured a total of 7,339 vehicles with 1,025 vehicles on Lagos-Ibadan being the least. Akwanga- Lafia had the highest number of vehicular speed captured with 1,867 vehicles, followed by 9th Mile-Obollo- Afor with 1,763 vehicles and Benin-Asaba road 1,581 vehicles. 1,103 vehicles had their speed recorded on Abuja-Lokoja road. On all these routes, […]

The exercise captured a total of 7,339 vehicles with 1,025 vehicles on Lagos-Ibadan being the least. Akwanga- Lafia had the highest number of vehicular speed captured with 1,867 vehicles, followed by 9th Mile-Obollo- Afor with 1,763 vehicles and Benin-Asaba road 1,581 vehicles. 1,103 vehicles had their speed recorded on Abuja-Lokoja road. On all these routes, cars dominated with 61percent of the total vehicles recorded, followed by buses with 27percent.Trailers and Trucks accounted for five percent while articulated vehicles comprising of tankers one percent and trailer four percent also had low records. Luxury buses accounted for only one percent of all the vehicles captured.These findings have further justified the need for the commencement of the flying tickets campaign to check these flying vehicles. I am sure you will be wondering how this will be done. Remember that severally on this page, i have made references to the fact that the Corps has  a structured vehicle data base arising from the new number plate and a biometric-based driver’s licence,  which has been acknowledged as being of a higher standard than most European countries’ driver’s licence. As at today, due to the features introduced in the upgraded licensing scheme, Nigeria secured reciprocity with six European countries and the state of Mary-land in the USA whereby holders of the new Nigeria drivers licence can replace same with the drivers’ licences of these six European countries and the state of Mary-land. FRSC  has also designed a platform called ‘’One Driver One Record’’ which enables FRSC to track and match records of a driver with his driver licence, vehicle number plate, insurance and traffic offences in a single view, which is being shared with other security agencies for crime prevention and the promotion of national security. Relying on these platforms, patrol teams have been mandated to capture details of vehicles which flout the speed limits for appropriate prosecution. Their focus will be on the time of the day when drivers violate speed limits which is between 0700hours and 0900hrs in the morning and 1501hrs and 1700hrs in the evening.
Despite the novelty of this assignment which should alert all stakeholders on the inherent dangers in driving above the approved speed limit, the study my friend confesses had some challenges which are worth mentioning here. These challenges, according to him, include the fact that   there were cases where some vehicles were speeding above 160km/hr making it difficult to read the number plates of such vehicles.
 There were also the issues of number plates of vehicles being worn out and could not be read.This second challenge reminds me of the argument I had last week in the church with a friend of mine who incidentally is a lawyer and a leader in church.For some months running he has been driving one of his vehicle without a number plate at the rear.After several months of teasing for him to be a good example,he finally showed up with a plastic number plate which is as criminal as driving without any number plate at all.Such behaviours by people who should know better ranks as some of the challenges the Corps battles with daily.Yet people like this will do everything to avert ebola yet would treat matters regarding traffic as if they mean nothing.
Another was the fact that the survey was also limited due to the fact that the exercise took place only during the day between 0700 – 1800 hours, as it was the handheld radars that were deployed and security challenges in the night could not permit a 24 hour survey. What we can deduce from this is that if the exercise had been conducted deep into the night the incidence of excessive speeding would have been higher than what was recorded as excessive speeding is more pronounced at night.
What really worries me stiff is why the average motorists is yet to embrace safety consciousness that is badly needed to address the spate of speeding daily recorded on Nigerian roads.No matter what anybody thinks, Nigerians must extend the same caution that has become the national norm in the fight against Ebola even in the fight against road traffic crashes which I dare say has claimed over 3000 lives in the past six months. I hope to talk more on this by next week.