By Ibironke Ariyo
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has intensified nationwide public awareness campaigns as part of its end-of-year road safety sensitisation, focusing on Nigeria’s first six designated corridors known for heavy traffic during festive seasons.
The FRSC Corps Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, said this in a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO), Olusegun Ogungbemide, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Mohammed said that the awareness drive covered the Lagos–Ibadan–Egbeda; Abuja City Gate–Airport Road–Giri–Kubwa–AYA (FCT Metropolis); Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria; Abuja–Lokoja–Zariagi; Benin–Asaba–Awka; and Shagamu–Ijebu Ode–Ore–Benin corridors.
According to him, the routes, alongside about 50 other corridors across the country, serve as critical national arteries and experience heightened vehicular movement as citizens travel to reunite with families and loved ones during the Yuletide.
The FRSC Corps Marshal said the sensitisation campaign was aimed at addressing major human and environmental factors responsible for crashes along the corridors.
This, he said, included speeding, reckless overtaking, driver fatigue, distraction from mobile phone use, overloading and poor vehicle maintenance.
He noted that unsafe driving behaviours, when combined with adverse weather conditions, ongoing construction activities and disregard for traffic signs, often turn busy highways into scenes of avoidable tragedy.
The FRSC Corps Marshal warned that violations of traffic regulations along the corridors pose grave and far-reaching dangers.
He also stressed that speeding, wrongful overtaking, lane indiscipline, drunk driving and disregard for traffic control devices significantly reduce reaction time and increase the severity of crashes.
He explained that such violations frequently lead to loss of vehicle control, dangerous head-on collisions, pedestrian knockdowns and multi-vehicle pile-ups, which overwhelm emergency response efforts and leave families permanently devastated.
The Corps Marshal emphasised that traffic regulations were not punitive obstacles but life-saving safeguards designed to protect all road users.
Mohammed added that every act of non-compliance heightens the risk of fatal outcomes and turns highways meant for mobility into corridors of grief.
“Road traffic crashes are not accidents but predictable outcomes of unsafe choices made behind the wheel.
“I urge motorists to cultivate patience and alertness, plan journeys ahead of time, comply with prescribed speed limits, avoid night travel where possible and ensure that vehicles are roadworthy before embarking on any trip,” he said.
The Corps Marshal said the campaign was focused on saving lives through awareness, education and voluntary compliance, stressing that every driver had a responsibility to protect not only their own lives but those of other road users.
He added that arriving safely at one’s destination remains the ultimate goal of every journey.
“To mitigate crashes and curb bad driving behaviours, I have directed Corridor Commanders to ensure adequate deployment of personnel, while making enforcement a top priority throughout the exercise,” he said.
The FRSC boss called on all motorists to see safety as a shared responsibility, reminding them that no journey is too urgent to be completed safely and no destination is worth a life lost.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)