FRSC Clears Air on its Report on Ekiti Doctors’ Auto Accident

Posted by Wole Oduwole Featured, Latest Headlines, News Friday, April 29th, 2016

By Niyi Adeyi, Lagos

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has denied linking the cause of accident last Sunday in Kaduna, which claimed the lives of six Medical Doctors and their driver from Ekiti State to over speeding.

While reacting to a media statement credited to Dr. Ekundare Folu of the State chapter of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the agency according to its Head, Media Relations and Strategy, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, declared that the Physician’s outburst was “unfounded”.

He said “as the agency conveys its condolence to the families and friends of the victims of the road crash, it affirmed that pronouncement made by the Corps on any crash, is always based on Technical Investigation carried out by a unit of “Safety Engineers domiciled in every Command of the FRSC spread nationwide”.

“Under the present circumstances, it is unfair for Dr Ekundare to describe the genuine intent of the Corps to establish the remote and immediate causes of the fatal crash, in partial fulfillment of its statutory mandate, as “distasteful and derogatory given the helplessness of the victims at the scene of the accident”.

Again, FRSC countered allegation that the Corps’ operatives arrived late at the scene of the crash as well as reluctant to take the victims to the hospital.

Kazeem argued that the Corps has always lived up to its resolve to prioritize rescue operations in the event of a road crash, adding that it was also on record that the FRSC has through its Call Centre, maintained seamless interface with road users and has reduced its response time to road crashes and other traffic-related matters to 15 minutes.

“For avoidance of doubt, our nearest Unit Command to the scene of the crash, Katari Unit, got a distress call about the fatal auto crash on 24th April 2016 at 16.32 hrs ( 6.32pm) and our rescue team from Katari arrived the scene at exactly 16.42hrs (6.42pm), thus our men arrived there 10 minutes after the crash and was supported by another team at Doka to assist in taking the victims ( dead and injured) to St. Gerald Hospital in Kaduna where the Kaduna state Sector Command immediately took over the matter.

“The Kaduna state Sector Commander, Corps Commander, Francis Ugboma also visited the hospital to monitor the status of the injured victims and condole with the bereaved. It was at the hospital that the Sector Commander put a call through to the FRSC Corps Marshal who also spoke to Dr. Akinbote, the Chairman of Ekiti state Medical Association and commiserated with the NMA and bereaved families.

From the words of Dr Ekundare, he was consistently monitoring the acceleration of the driver whenever he hits 110km/hr, “I was in the same vehicle, sitting in the row behind the driver and I checked the speedometer from time to time. The bus also makes a beeping sound once the speed exceeds 110km/hr. Let me state categorically that the bus driver was not speeding.” It is rather unfortunate for him to conclude that a bus which was consistently exceeding the recommended 90km/hr, was not on a high speed” FRSC contended.

The agency noted that in spite of its decline to join issues with Dr. Ekundare, it established it was instructive to disclose at this “juncture that our investigations revealed that while the vehicle was in motion, the right rear tyre which was a Bridgestone brand manufactured in 2008, blew up, indicating that the tyre which has expired since 2012, was not roadworthy. The remaining two tyres were manufactured in 2014 while one tyre was churned out this year”.

“It was also discovered that out of the 3 tyres, one had patch marks. It is obvious that the driver’s acceleration rate constituted to excessive speeding, sudden tyre burst and somersault of the bus” FRSC informed.

Kazeem again said the Corps “frown at Dr Ekundare’s assertion that the FRSC uses road crashes of this nature to further propagate its on-going initiative on the speed limiting device”.

“It is already a global knowledge that speed limiting device plays vital role in reducing road traffic crashes associated with speed limit violation and this underscores the position of the United Nations on the need for concrete but decisive steps to be taken by member nations to address the menace of speed induced road traffic crashes as we march towards realizing the UN decade of action on road safety 2011 – 2020” the Corps statement stressed.

Following the sad development, Mr. Kazeem informed that the FRSC Corps Marshal had after commiserating with the Ekiti state Executive Governor, convened a stakeholders summit on tyre with a commitment to re-launch a nationwide tyre awareness campaign as part of measures to reinvigorate public consciousness on the tyre care, routine checks, avoidance of tokunbo tyres and to organize training sessions for Vulcanizers to further inject order and decorum in their activities.

“As the nation’s lead agency on road safety management and traffic administration, the onus lies on the FRSC to immediately investigate any road traffic crash and come up with recommendations which could assist in forestalling future occurrence. It will be recalled that the Corps has undertaken similar exercise after previous road traffic crashes such as the recent fatal crash which claimed the lives of Former Minister of State for Labour and members of his family, Late Mr. James Ocholi” FRSC recalled.

“Findings from the same fatal crash also threw up the need for the Nigerian motoring public to strictly adhere to road traffic regulations bordering on compulsory use of rear seat belts by occupants of a moving vehicle, in line with the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2016.

FRSC reiterated that investigation which is in line with the contemporary global standard seeks to establish some factors such as mechanical status of the vehicle, tyres, road condition and possibly, the psychological state of the driver prior to the auto crash.

The late Doctors died last Sunday while traveling to Sokoto to attend the NMA annual delegate Conference/meeting.