By Yusuf Odejobi
The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi on Tuesday gave its officers an express order to commence a nationwide arrest, impoundment, and prosecution of owners or operators of rickety vehicles plying the nation’s highway.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem in Abuja. According to Kazeem, he stated that the riot act to the operators of the rickety vehicle forms part of the Corps’ commitment to enhance the tempo of its operational activities and create a safer motoring environment in the country, premised on the realisation of its 2021 strategic goals of reducing road traffic crashes by 15% and fatalities by 20%.
Speaking with MMS Plus newspaper in a reaction on this development, the Executive Director of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT),Mr.Paul Ndibe, he stated that he expect FRSC to give out further details on what constitute a rickety vehicle or not to enable the general public , the vehicle owners and even the enforcer know so everyone would be on the same page.
According to Ndibe, it would be difficult to just look at a car and declare it a rickety vehicle if there is no standard, as a vehicle can be considered rickety by an evaluator and might also not be considered a rickety by another evaluator.
He said: “A vehicle can be going on the road while the driver’s door is painted yellow and the passenger door is painted blue or any other color, from the look of such vehicle one might say it’s rickety but meanwhile the vehicle might be sound in all aspects aside the colours of the doors and sometimes even the owner of such vehicle might not know if he/she is driving a rickety vehicle.”
He added that continuous efforts should be made to move out all broken down vehicles on the roads so as to reduce traffic and accidents.
In a separate interview with the FRSC National Public Relation Officer, he explained that as the lead agency in road transportation and certified to regulate and enforce law on the roads, every personnel of the agency is trained to identify what a rickety vehicle is also owners of such vehicle equally knows if he or she is driving one.
“We call some vehicles coffins because they’re looking for people to bury inside so FRSC is arm with what is known as heck list of vehicles with minimum safety standard.”
“When we talk about rickety vehicles we’re saying that such vehicles should meet minimum safety standards , that it could not pose hazards to other road users and themselves who are occupants of such vehicles. In that wise it means your vehicle is either mechanically deficient or your vehicles is posing a threat.”
He explained further that the agency also conduct free safety check to alert users of vehicle know if it’s rickety or have not met minimum safety standards and hereby give them ample time to effect repair before arrest for such offences are being carried out.
“We give owners of vehicle a citation that they’re not supposed to pay for, it will let them know if their rear light is working or not, if steering is wobbling or tyres are bad and the rest like that.”
He stressed that the agency has also done enough sensitization in corporate organizations, motor parks , establishment about rickety vehicles.
On synergy with customs officials to stop import of aged cars into the country, he said “We have a handshake with them at a particular time . We realized some vehicles are aged, we worked with them so that such vehicles are not allowed to enter the country and where they’re allowed we work with other organisations to impounded such vehicles.”
