The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), in collaboration with BATMedics, has screened about 500 drivers and motorists for visual impairment as part of a National Driver Health and Road Safety Outreach Programme to mark the 2026 World Sight Day.

The initiative, held at the Abuja Medical Store (ACMS), beside Jabi Park, Abuja, brought together road safety and public health practitioners in an effort to address vision problems among motorists, which the FRSC identified as a critical human factor in road traffic crashes.

The programme provided beneficiaries with free eye and medical screening, professional assessments and medical guidance. Cases requiring further intervention are expected to benefit from subsequent treatment and surgical support.

Representing the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Shehu Mohammed, the Assistant Corps Marshal in charge of Special Duties and External Relations, ACM Ibrahim M. Bazama, said the intervention reflected the Corps’ renewed emphasis on preventive road safety.

He said the FRSC was working to move beyond an approach centred predominantly on enforcement towards a strategy anchored on prevention, early intervention and the wellbeing of road users.

According to him, the condition of a vehicle alone does not determine road safety, as a mechanically sound vehicle can only be as safe as the person controlling it.

He stressed that good vision was indispensable to safe driving because motorists must constantly identify road signs, pedestrians, traffic signals, vehicles, obstacles and changing road conditions, often within fractions of a second.

The Corps Marshal described the exercise as “not simply a medical exercise, but a critical road safety intervention”, adding that every driver whose vision was examined, corrected or appropriately treated represented a step towards safer roads and the preservation of lives.

The Director-General of BATMedics, Ojeje Onimisi, said improving access to essential healthcare for professional drivers and other road users was important to improving the health, safety and productivity of Nigerians.

He reaffirmed BATMedics’ commitment to supporting interventions that improve the wellbeing of Nigerians, particularly people whose daily responsibilities place them at the centre of the country’s transportation system.

The FRSC said the collaboration underscored the importance of partnerships among government institutions, private organisations, medical professionals, transport stakeholders and civil society in tackling road safety challenges.

It said road safety should begin before a crash occurs, requiring deliberate efforts to identify and eliminate risk factors before they result in injuries, deaths or destruction of property.

The Corps identified driver fitness as a key component of its preventive road safety strategy and urged motorists, particularly commercial drivers, to take visual problems seriously.

It advised drivers experiencing blurred vision, difficulty seeing at night, eye strain or other visual challenges to seek medical attention rather than postponing treatment.

The Corps warned that untreated visual problems could endanger not only affected drivers but also passengers, pedestrians and other road users.

Mohammed commended BATMedics for supporting the outreach and called on other organisations with the capacity and goodwill to replicate similar interventions.

He said Nigeria needed more initiatives that take essential health and safety services directly to communities and people who need them.

The outreach forms part of the FRSC’s broader mandate to promote safe road use through education, persuasion, subtle force and enforcement.

The Corps said the initiative reinforced its philosophy that the most effective road traffic crash is one that is prevented before it happens.
Healthy driver. Safer roads.