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Towards reducing articulated vehicles-induced carnage

By Lillian Chukwu, Abuja 
01 July 2015   |   2:15 am
Who feels it knows it, seems to be apt in describing the hardship, sorrow and tears, articulated vehicles bring to bear on Nigerians on daily basis
A burning articulated vehicle

A burning articulated vehicle

Who feels it knows it, seems to be apt in describing the hardship, sorrow and tears, articulated vehicles bring to bear on Nigerians on daily basis.

Those who have one business or the other to do around Apapa Ports in Lagos are not likely to have kind words for owners and drivers of these vehicles. What with the man-hour losses incurred every day.

Also, the families of those who have lost their lives as a result of accidents caused by theses vehicle are still smarting from such to date.
 
FRSC preliminary investigation showed that although 49 tankers were responsible for the 1,193 vehicles that caused Road Transport Crashes (RTCs) nationwide between January and June 2015, sixteen of the incidents occurred in the first week of June alone and were caused largely by break failures.
 
The sector data also shows that trailers and tankers may cause about 384 crashes before the end of 2015 which translates to 17,664 deaths this year.
 
Recently, no fewer than 21 vehicles, 44 shops and three houses were destroyed by fire caused by a petrol truck that fell off a bridge in Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos state.
 
Within a fortnight, two others occurred: First at Idimu, a suburb of the Lagos metropolis at the wee hours of the morning with about 34 buildings, 70 shops and a truck and tricycle consumed by resultant fire. The second incidence was just after the Victoria Garden cemetery but luckily this time there was no causalty.
 
The frequencies of these crashes especially on the nation’s highways have not left many victims as lucky as the Lagos incidences, as on June 1, 2015 at Onitsha, Anambra State, the state governor, Willie Obiano, was reported to have wept openly upon seeing bodies of about 70 people burnt alive when a fuel tanker crashed into a busy bus station and exploded in the southeast city.
 
Corps Marshal of FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, said at a stakeholders’ summit that recent developments in road traffic crashes involving tankers and trailers have become worrisome.
 
He noted that in “2013, a total of 21,199 vehicles were involved in crashes in which 1,495 were tanker or trailer related, representing 7.05 per cent. The following year in 2014, a total of 16,779 vehicles were involved out of which 998 were tanker or trailer related representing 5.94 per cent. From the beginning of this year till date, a total of 1,193 vehicles caused the RTC in which 49 were tanker or trailer related representing 4.11 per cent.”
 
What then are the causes of the recent spate of RTCs involving articulated vehicles? Oyeyemi asserted that “the suspension of the strikes by petroleum union led to increased demand for vehicles to transport fuel across the country and subsequently increased demand for vehicles led to the use of non-road worthy vehicles which would normally have been off the road.”

He reiterated that following rising road traffic crashes involving haulage vehicles which has caused the nation valuable lives and property and the continuous congestion of the Lagos port roads which if not checked on time could lead to a national calamity in case of any major mishap that it was therefore expedient that the FRSC meet with stakeholders with the sole aim of finding solutions to all issues that may be contribute to the occurrence thereby engendering safer roads for positive national growth.
 
National chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Salimon Oladiti, identified possible courses of accidents to include human error, mechanical error, inadequate parking provisions and conditions of the Nigerian road.

According to him, the union is already collaborating with the FRSC in its drive at introducing a new device that will detect drug abuse while driving and similarity agreed that every tanker drivers should have speed limiters and reflectors on their vehicle before September 1, 2015.
 
“It is instructive to state here that we have discovered that 75 per cent of road accidents occur at night. As a policy, we always warn our members to stop night driving and we advised that all articulated vehicles should be disallowed to drive at night, because of the insecurity situation in the country and bad roads.” Oladiti said.
 
This night directive is in contradiction of Governor of Anambra State, Obiano’s ban on heavy duty vehicles on plying the state roads during the daytime.
 
The Corp Marshal listed the objectives of the summit  which was declared open by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to include ensuring sustained safe mode of petroleum products haulage; establish the best way to check and enforce the minimum standards in tankers and trailers operation; work with Department of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Ports Authority, cement and flour mill companies and other major fleet operators as well as tank farms to ensure insistence on tankers and trailers meeting minimum safety standards and sanctions for default.
 
The Corp Marshal said other significant areas of consideration include to ensure compliance with permissible axle load by stakeholders, implementation of safe-to-load initiative (a standard to be agreed on and enforced), implementation of fixing of the retro-reflective tapes on trucks to enhance visibility and the possibility of renewal of petroleum tankers, through fleet acquisition renewal scheme with collaboration with financial institutions like Bank of Industry, Infrastructure Bank.
 
Other analysts lament that Nigeria as Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, neglected refineries with the resultant reliance on imports for the 40 million liters of gasoline it consumes each day and abandoned rail system which implies heavy dependence on road sector for haulage of the products.  
 
In seeking alternatives for over-dependence on articulated vehicles for haulages and rapid repeats of crashes, experts on haulage operations and national development advocated the review, regulations and enforcements of government policies on such heavy duty vehicles.
 National President of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, Dr. Kassim Bataiya, said that the effectiveness of haulage business in Nigeria is dependent on the economy, government policy, infrastructures, manpower and capacity.
 
Bataiya advocated the immediate rehabilitation of the railways to improve haulage services and delivery for national development.  
 
Road safety expert and director at Safety Beyond Borders , Patrick Adenusi,  on ‘Trucks in fatal accident: The truck drivers’ angle’ said that it was imperative to identify unsafe driving actions that contribute to fatal crashes of large trucks and to recognize instructional strategies.

He listed related factors for trucks in fatal accidents to include: failure to keep in lane, inability to yield right of way, driving too fast for conditions or in excess of required speed, touts, inattentiveness, operating vehicle in erratic, careless or negligent manner, driving on wrong side of road and bad or failed road without adequate warning signs.
 
Other causes are passing with insufficient distance, making improper turn drowsy, sleepy, asleep, fatigued, improper or erratic lane change, following improperly, targets, drugs and alcohol and scrap vehicles still plying the road
 
President of National Automotive Council (NAC) Aminu Jalal, stressed that the organisation is concerned with road safety and has undertaken to establish 102 vehicle safety standards with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and other stakeholders.
 
He listed other initiatives to include the creation of a test vehicle safety parts and undertake vehicle homologation as this would check the sales of sub-standard spare parts.
 
Jalal said the Council has produced a booklet on the safe choice, use and repair of tyres and is intervening to ensure mechanics are up-to-date in their training which includes developing a new curriculum on teaching automotive mechanics, the trade test three, two and one with other stakeholders.
 
The NAC has also equipped six pilot centers for the teaching of the new curriculum and has been training mechanics in the repair of modern vehicles and has just completed the training of 1,650 mechanics nationwide in the repair of trucks and road tractors. 

According to the panelists, indiscriminate parking of vehicles along the highways (road shoulders) needs to be checked, while all deviant drivers should face the wrath of the law when apprehended.
 
The stakeholders agreed that there is need to tighten access to professional haulage road drivers’ license adding that there is the urgent need for renewal of petroleum tankers through Fleet Acquisition Renewal Scheme in collaboration with financial institutions such as the Bank of Industry.

They also said there was urgent need for Life Insurance for all Nigerians for ease of compensation in case of loss of lives and need for comprehensive welfare package for haulage drivers by their employers in other to motivate them.
 
The Corp Marshal stressed that FRSC’s commitment to reducing road carnage by haulage vehicles entails use of tanker and trailer guidelines, rapid removal of highway obstructions with the recently acquired World Bank heavy duty tow vehicles.
 
He advocated the implementation of the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme (RTSSS) which regulates fleet operations and the introduction of the Safe-To-Load Programme for safe operation of the distribution of major petroleum products Oyeyemi assured that the development of a robust national uniform licensing scheme with the upgraded driver’s license and vehicle number plate regime will make it possible for security agencies to identify, profile and track vehicles operating in the country.
 

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