The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has begun investigation into the road accident involving three tankers and a trailer that resulted in explosion on Kara Bridge of the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, on Sunday.
The investigation is said to be with the intention of prosecution both the owners and drivers of the vehicles involved.
The order for the investigation of the explosion was given by the FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi.
In a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Marshal who decried the attendant loss of lives and damage to properties resulting from the “avoidable crashes”, expressed concern over the ugly incident noting that irrespective of the series of engagements with the various unions of tankers and trailers and major stakeholders in the road transport sector, the country still experienced such ugly trends due to undue violation of maximum safety standards by both drivers and owners of the vehicles.
Oyeyemi said that apart from several engagements with the unions and stakeholders, the Corps had also engaged drivers of Dangote Group during their 2019 annual drivers retreat, where he delivered series of lectures on basic road safety ideals and the imperatives of maintaining maximum safety standards at all times.
While emphatically stating that the situation was utterly unacceptable and must be brought to an end, the Corps Marshal immediately directed the Safety Engineering Unit of the Corps to commence thorough investigation into the crash and the Corps Legal Adviser to activate immediate prosecution of both the vehicle owners and the drivers to serve as deterrent to others.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 set up a Presidential Task Force on haulage operation in Nigeria headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, to look into issues affecting safe haulage operation in the country.
The task force activated proceedings and several effective and efficient management plans for haulage had been carried out to eradicate crashes involving articulated vehicles in the country.
