The Senate on Tuesday ordered the; Nigerian Police Force, Federal Road Safety Commission and the Vehicle Inspection Officers to begin an immediate clampdown on erring trucks and articulated lorries, plying the nation’s highways.
The Senate gave the order following the increasing rate of road accidents, caused by trailers, fuel tankers and other articulated vehicles in the country.
It claimed that the affected type of vehicles was plying the roads without the minimum prescribed levels of lighting or other road safety requirements.
The Senate gave the directive sequel to a motion moved by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Teslim Folarin
Presenting his motion, Folarin said in 2017, there were 779 Road Traffic Collisions involving trailers and tankers.
He said the incidents resulted in 737 fatalities and two thousand 2,622 serious injuries.
He said the statistics implied that an average of two Nigerians was killed every day and seven seriously injured in 2017 as a result of trailer/tanker accidents.
Folarin further pointed out that every day, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company loads an average of 1,255 trucks laden with petroleum products for dispatch with demand and supply chain concluded through road transport in tanker trailers.
He further noted that the accidents accounted for 28 percent of road accidents in Nigeria.
The Senate frowned at the continued loss of lives and properties caused by truck and articulated lorry accidents in the country.
He expressed displeasure that despite the release of the safety guidelines and regulations by the FRSC which required the fixing of retro-reflective tapes on trucks and articulated Lorries to enhance visibility, the articulated vehicles continued to disobey the guidelines.
The Senate in its submission said that several legislative provisions, including those of the Road Traffic Act; Road Traffic Regulation (2012); Federal Highways Act 1971 and the Federal Road Safety Act 2007, were being flouted by truck/trailer/tanker owners, operators, and drivers with impunity, leading to avoidable road traffic collisions involving the affected class of vehicles.
The Senate, therefore, directed its committee to investigate the adoption and implementation of the recommendations from the 2018 haulage Operators Stakeholders’ Summit amongst all relevant stakeholders.
The Senate further urged the Federal Government to establish trailer parks and introduce weighbridges along the highways.
