Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has noted that car crashes along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway have drastically reduced since the inauguration of the light rail in July, adding that the dense traffic on the highway had also declined to a large extent.
He, therefore, reasoned that a functional rail system will reduce road carnages and the attendant loss of lives and property in the country.
Oyeyemi said this on Thursday in Abuja at a press briefing on the Sallah special patrol and the commencement of enforcement of speed limiting device in commercial vehicles.
He commended the Federal Government for investing in rail transport, noting that an improved inter-modal transport system across the country would assist the corps to achieve the UN Decade of Action goals.
“I commend the government for reviving the rail transport in the country. Since the inauguration of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line, road traffic crashes has reduced along that corridor, as well as the usually dense traffic on that road.
“If the rail transport and other inter-modal system are introduced in other parts of the country, it would help the FRSC to achieve its desired objectives of reducing road traffic crashes and fatalities,” he said.
The FRSC boss maintained that the enforcement of the speed limiting device in commercial vehicles would commence on October 1, 2016, adding that the facility was meant to reduce fatalities on the road and not to punish operators.
He explained that the agency had succeeded in reducing road traffic crashes between January and August, 2016 over the figures recorded in the same period in 2015.
“From January to August, 2015, a total of 5,953 crashes were recorded involving 39,119 people in which 3,233 of them died and 17,189 others were rescued alive. Comparatively, within the same period in 2016, a total of 5,707 crashes were recorded involving 38,222 people out of which 3,048 died and 17,446 others were rescued alive,” Oyeyemi said.
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