The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has advised motorists to put measures in place to ensure their safety on the roads as the rainy season approaches.

The FRSC Ijebu-Ode Unit Commander, Assistant Corps Commander (ACC), Austin Ekele, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun on Sunday.

Ekele said the commission had made some strategic plans to ensure sanity on the nation`s highways during the impending wet season.

The unit commander explained that road accidents occurred mostly during wet seasons because of the slippery nature of the roads and unseen potholes covered by floods.

We are entering another season of the year which comes with its own peculiar challenges for driving and general road traffic management.

It is imperative to remind our motoring public to begin to adapt necessary measures to guard against crashes peculiar with the period and the nature of the roads.

Use of worn-out tires, poor lighting mechanisms, use of phones while driving, wrong overtaking, drinking and driving, overloading and speeding pose serious dangers, especially during the rains.

Your wipers must also be serviced and put in proper condition; drivers must be very assiduous with car maintenance during the wet season,’’ Ekele said.

The commander advised drivers to pack their vehicles when they noticed that rains were heavy, stressing that life was more important than any other activities.

People must know that if the rain is too heavy, driving might be very difficult and hazardous.

It is wise to put on your hazard lights and clear off the roads when visibility is impaired as you wait for the rain to subside before continuing on the journey,’’ he said.

Ekele, who recently assumed duty at the Ijebu-Ode command, also urged road safety stakeholders within the command to team-up with the commission to achieve the 2016 FRSC corporate strategic goals.

According to him, human factor accounts for more than 95 per cent of road traffic crashes recorded on Nigerian roads.

He said if people would learn to obey traffic laws and ensure proper maintenance of their health and vehicles, more lives would be saved on the roads.

Ekele expressed concern about the prevailing speed-limit violation among road users dominance; he reminded his staff of the need to raise the bar so as to reverse the trend.

He said that the command would do its best to reduce crashes to the barest minimum on the Sagamu-Ore expressway.

He also said that this would be in line with FRSC’s objective to achieve the commission’s goal of 15 per cent reduction in road traffic crashes and 25 per cent reduction in fatality rate.

The commander also promised to improve the command’s visibility on the highways by promptly responding to road traffic crash victims and the timely removal of obstructions on the roads. (NAN)