The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Wednesday said that the presidency had approved Oct. 1 for the commencement of implementation and enforcement of the Speed Limiting Device.
Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshall, FRSC, disclosed this in Abuja while briefing stakeholders on the new date for the implementation and enforcement of the device.
Oyeyemi said that the implementation and enforcement of the device witnessed four postponements from its initial launching date of June 1, 2015, before its final approval by the presidency.
“The final directive from the presidency is clear; the enforcement date for the implementation of the speed limiting device is on Oct. 1 and we have had series of stakeholders meeting.
“The essence of today’s meeting is to finally convey the directive of the federal government to the stakeholders that with effect from Oct. 1, the implementation and enforcement would commence.
“We already have the portal that we will use to monitor this, we don’t need to pursue any vehicle, we will just stop you like we verify licence.
“On the tablet we will check whether your vehicle has been installed with the device, if it has not, we will impound the vehicle and we make sure that you do the right thing.
“We are not talking about fines now ,it’s to save lives so we will impound the vehicle then the owner of the vehicle will be made to install the device before the journey continues ,’’ he said.
Oyeyemi said that the corps would do this for the next three to six months to achieve enforcement and compliance so as to compel commercial vehicles to install the device.
He said the FRSC was only concerned about commercial vehicles installing it for now, adding that with time the enforcement would extend to private vehicles so as to cut down crashes on the road.
He said the FRSC was relentless on the enforcement of the speed limiting device because speed had been identified as a key risk factor in road traffic injuries.
Oyeyemi said that an increase in average speed of 1km/h typically results in a 3 per cent higher risk of a crash involving injury, with a 4 per cent – 5 per cent increase resulting in fatalities.
“ For car occupants in a crash with an impact speed of 80km/h, the likelihood of death is 20 times what it would have been at an impact speed of 30km/h.
“Speed is the major cause of crashes in Nigeria with commercial vehicles accounting for 65 per cent of the crashes,’’ the corps marshal said.
He said speed related road deaths were avoidable if Nigerians resolved to prevent them, adding that controlling human habits on speeding had not been as effective as desired.
Oyeyemi said it was pertinent for the nation to embrace this speed limiting strategy to curb “this monster on our roads’’.
He said the speed limiter device was available in the market and that the FRSC had a list of the companies trading in the device on its website and urged vehicle owners to visit the site so as to purchase genuine ones.
Oyeyemi urged the Standard Organsiation of Nigeria to ensure that importers complied with the standard for the device.
He also tasked the SON to ensure that only vehicles with the device were allowed to be imported into the country.
Speaking at the occasion, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal,commended the FRSC for the initiative and thanked the National Assembly and the President for endorsing it .
Lawal said the project would help in saving the lives of Nigerians by cutting down speed which was a major killer on the nation’s highways.
The stakeholders present at the forum included representatives from the National Assembly, the SGF’s office and the Department of State Security (DSS).
Members of transport associations in Nigeria were also present and they pledged their support to the implementation of the device.(NAN)
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