Oyo impounds 50 trailers in Ibadan for flouting traffic rules

In a move aimed at sanitizing Oyo State highways and ensuring the free flow of traffic, the chairman, Oyo State Road Transport Management Agency (OYRTMA), Dr. Akin Fagbemi, yesterday led officers of the agency to impound 50 vehicles at the popular Iwo Road, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ibadan, the state capital.

Many heavy-duty trucks were indiscriminately parked along the road, causing huge obstruction to free vehicular movement along the corridor and paralyzing economic activities around the area. The trailers were taken to the agency’s headquarters in the state secretariat at Agodi to free up traffic and allow for smooth business activities.

While addressing drivers of the impounded vehicles, the chairman said the present administration in the state was not out to make life unbearable for citizens but to do all within the ambit of the law to woo foreign direct investors by creating an enabling environment devoid of avoidable and perpetual traffic jams.

His words: “You may recall that we recently announced the approval by the governor for immediate use of a 250-trucks capacity parking space at our Sanyo operational centre. While frantic efforts are on to secure other parking spaces across the state, we implore all heavy-duty vehicle operators to utilize the available park and desist from indiscriminate parking on the highways, as this is highly inimical to other road users as well as cripple economic activities within the state.

“This operation is not to witch-hunt anybody. We are aware of the technical implications of the continuous parking of this heavy-duty vehicle whose imposing weights far supersedes that of the designed load-carrying capacity of the highways thus destroying the roads by creating potholes at different sections of the highways.

“We, therefore, enjoin all trailer operators within the state to cooperate with the government to achieve free flow of traffic across the 33 local government areas of the state.”