In a sustained efforts towards making the highways safer and eradicating all incidences of road traffic crashes and its attendant fatalities, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has urged administrators of local governments in the country to relocate markets from the highways.
He noted that that would help the existing operational efforts of the FRSC towards enhancing the safety of the entire motoring population.
According to the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Marshal made the call while decrying the recent road traffic crash caused by break failure and loss of control that claimed many lives at Ibaka area of Akungba Akoko, Akoko South-West local government area of Ondo State Saturday evening.
Lamenting the huge loss of lives and damage to properties occasioned by the unfortunate but avoidable occurrence, Oyeyemi explained that the crash occurred at about 6.30 pm on Saturday 31 October, 2020, when a DAF Truck loaded with bags of rice rammed into the stalls in the market and crashed into a Toyota Camry saloon car, Toyota Corolla and three motorcycles.
The crash involved a total of 23 people comprising of 11 male adults, 3 male children, 7 female adult and 2 female children.
Out of the 23 people involved, a total of 7 people comprising of 3 male adults, 3 female adult and 1 male child were rescued with different degrees of injuries and taken to the hospital.
He said 16 people – 8 male adults, 2 male children, 4 female adult and 2 female children – lost their lives and their bodies deposited at Specialist Hospital, Ikare and General Hospital Iwaro Oka mortuaries respectively by FRSC emergency rescue teams.
The Corps Marshal who spoke extensively on the urgency of such relocation also revealed that the Corps was concerned with the rising statistics of innocent citizens who had lost their lives as a result of building markets close to the highways and had since initiated impact oriented operational strategies to curb the menace.
He however lamented that the strategies, no matter how good, would not yield desired results if the government at the grassroots did not rise to the responsibility of relocating those markets.
Commiserating with the families of the victims, the Corps Marshal advised road users to be more disciplined, maintain their vehicles regularly and maintain prescribed speed limits at all times especially crowded places like markets.
