FRSC partners Rotary Club to sensitise Nigerians to dangers of using mobile phones while driving

The Federal Road Safety Corps on Friday in Abuja collaborated with the Rotary Club of Asokoro, FCT, to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers of using mobile phones while driving.

Corps Commander Sunday Oghenekaro , who represented the Corps Marshal, said the use of mobile phones while driving contravened regulation 166 of the National Road Traffic regulation 2012.

According to him, the law provides that no driver, while driving, should use any form of communication device.Oghenekaro said it was also an offence for a driving instructor to make telephone communication while giving instruction to a learner driver.

He said that any person who contravened the regulation, on conviction, would be liable to a fine of N4,000 or six months imprisonment or both.

He explained that the objective of the FRSC was not to impose fine or send defaulters to prison but to secure changed behaviour by road users.No message is as important as your life and what that means is that all messages can wait to the extent that your life is not compromised.

If you receive a call while you are driving, the best thing to do is to pull over safely and answer the call if you feel it is very important.Passengers in vehicles must also ensure that their lives are not compromised because of a careless driver who insists on answering call while the vehicle is in motion,’’ he said.

Oghenekaro said that commercial drivers were mostly guilty of this act and must be warned and as the lives of their passengers were important.He said the FRSC had been doing lots of sensitisation on safe driving and had taken such campaigns to different MDAs and even schools within the FCT.

He also said that it was very important for road users during the periods of rains to ensure safety, adding that “this is a season where extra caution must be ensured by road users.

He said drivers at this period must ensure their tyres and wipers were in good conditions to ensure visibility.

Other areas of safety that drivers must ensure during this period is the lighting system; the head lamp; the trafficator; the hazard light all must be in perfect condition.They should avoid overloading, speeding and ensure the use of seat belt. Also, it is important for pedestrians to ensure the use of foot bridges,’’ Oghenekaro said.

Commander Angus Ibezim, Head of Section, Partnership, FRSC, said driving was a serious business and should be taken as such because any form of distraction could lead to accident.

He said over 5,000 lives were lost in 2015 due to road traffic crash and more than 75 per cent of the crashes were attributed to human factor.

He commended the Rotary Club of Asokoro for partnering with FRSC in sensitising the public to the ills of using phones while driving.We want to invite other NGOs to take a cue from this and give back to society through interventions like this because this act by Rotarians is proactive, protective and preventive,’’ Ibezim said.

Earlier, President of Rotary Club, Mrs Frances Bekey, said it was observed that 10 out of every three drivers in a day used their phones while driving.We are here to launch the campaign to discourage people from using phones while driving, as this leads to lots of accident and loss of life.

We want to use this opportunity to assist the FRSC to sensitise the public not to use their phones while driving to reduce the rate of accidents on our roads.We intend to do this campaign once in three months to make public be aware that there are sanctions for going against this rule so that they can stay safe.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the FRSC and the Rotarians carried out the sensitisation around the Berger roundabout and Area 1 of the FCT