Press Releases

Fashola Calls For The Enforcement Of Safety Standards On Nigerian Roads

Jan 29, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Thursday flagged off a one day seminar on Improving Safety in Transportation and Haulage Business in Lagos State with a call for the enforcement of safety standards on Nigerian roads.

According to the Governor, this is the only way to stem the incessant loss of life and property on the nation’s roads through the incidents of fuel tanker explosions, trailer accidents and the resultant maiming and killing of innocent people on the roads.

Addressing stakeholders and interest groups in the transportation and haulage business at the Ostra Hall and Hotel in Alausa, Governor Fashola stressed the need for the various Federal Government agencies that supervise the movement of the various vehicles on the roads, especially, the trailers, tankers and other articulated vehicles to wake up to their responsibilities of ensuring that the vehicles are both road-worthy and secured.

Recalling the numerous incidents of oil tanker explosions, containers falling off trailers and trailers losing control and running into innocent people either in public or private places and the resultant deaths and devastations such incidents have caused across the country, Governor Fashola wondered if better results could not have been achieved if the government agencies that are responsible for overseeing the operations of these vehicles take their responsibilities seriously.

He queried, “Can the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), for instance, not set and enforce safety standards for vehicles allowed to operate at the ports? Can the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) not take pre-emptive action by verifying the safety of tankers at the depot where they load? Should the Department of Petroleum Resources not insist on standards to be met before registering them to operate within the loading bay?”

He called for the proper supervision of vehicles that enter the ports and fuel-loading depots to ensure that they are road worthy adding that the authorities at the ports and fuel loading depots should ensure that containers are secured on the trailers and oil tankers well covered before allowing them out of the loading bays.

Stressing the important role trailers and tankers are meant to play in the economic life of the nation, Governor Fashola, however, regretted, “But indeed as much as they have played beneficial roles, they have also played devastating role in our lives”, adding, “To put it mildly is to say that the fear of the tanker and the trailer is the beginning of wisdom”.

According to the Governor, “They have become a source of pain and a source of sadness to countless families. There have been countless and needless destruction of lives and properties on our highways”, pointing out that since no such problems occur in the countries that manufacture the vehicles, the problem must be from the inability of our people to manage the vehicles.

Blaming the daily explosion of tankers and the resultant devastation in the society on simple human error of negligence, Governor Fashola, who stressed his administration’s determination to find a permanent solution to the occurrences in Lagos State, declared, “As a government that places the highest premium on human life, we cannot allow this to continue. I think we have recorded one incident too many of poorly secured containers falling off lorries, maiming and killing innocent people, crushing vehicles and all the occupants and severing body parts”.

He continued, “In our view these are no longer accidents. They typify mindlessness and we will and must not allow this to continue. If we do not make concerted efforts now, we will be failing in our duty to secure life and property. It is our responsibility to identify and address the root cause of these incidents and to minimize there occurrence”.

According to the Governor, “The frequency of occurrence of these incidents of overturns of articulated vehicles and tankers and their explosions, have become increasingly worrisome. We will not wait until the lives of some prominent persons in our society are affected before we see it as an issue of national significance. The lives of ordinary people are as important as those of the privileged because we place important premium on the lives of the 18 million of you who have entrusted your care on us”.

Calling on the participants to deliberate on the issue as a family of concerned people and come up with recommendations that would stem the devastating tide, Governor Fashola declared, “This meeting is not for assigning blames, responsibilities or buck-passing to anybody. On the contrary, for us it is a family meeting. A meeting where members of the same family are going to accept responsibility for what they have not done well and undertake to do it better. A family meeting where members of the same family are going to accept credit for what they have done well and undertake to continue to do it even better”

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Commissioner for Transportation, Professor Bamidele Badejo, said the increasing trend of accidents involving tankers and articulated vehicles on Lagos roads calls for the concern and decisive action of industrial stakeholders adding that this informed the need for the organization of the one-day seminar.

According to the Commissioner, “In recent times, road traffic accidents involving tankers, trailers and articulated vehicles have been on the increase, causing pains to families of innocent victims”, adding that most of the accidents could be classified as criminal negligence.

“Along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, tankers and trailers are abandoned on the road without caution signs for on-coming motorists with disastrous consequences. The same can be said about the Ijora and Tin-can axis where tankers and trailers have taken permanent abode on the roadsides”, Professor Badejo lamented, pointing out that except the operators of these vehicles change their orientation towards traffic rules and regulations, the efforts of the State Government at achieving free flow of traffic and public safety on the axis would remain futile.

Welcoming all participants to the seminar, the Commissioner expressed the confidence that with the quality of participants and stakeholders present at the forum, far-reaching decisions that would transform the transportation and road safety sector in Lagos State would be made.