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The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says Nigeria lost over N39 billion to tanker and trailer-related road crashes in 2018.
Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, made the disclosure at a stakeholders’ meeting with tank farm operators, in Lagos, yesterday.
He said 650 tankers and trailers were involved in crashes in 2018, with over 90 percent of the affected vehicles having been used for haulage transportations for over 30 years.
“Nigeria lost N39 billion to trailer and tanker crashes in 2018 alone, with about 650 articulated vehicles involved, while over 90 percent of them had been used for haulage transportation for over 30 years. “Haulage has become the most utilised way of inter-city movements of goods and services, while the country consumes an estimated 60 million litres of refined petroleum products per day,’’ he said.
Oyeyemi said that the introduction of safe-to-load programme of distribution of major petroleum products was aimed at ensuring that only vehicles in good condition were allowed to transport both wet and dry cargoes on the roads.
According to him, the vehicles must also be driven by qualified and competent drivers to ensure safety on the roads. The corps marshal added that FRSC officials deployed to tank farms across the country were also trained and retrained to ensure compliance with the standard by fleet operators.
He said that the corps would conduct investigations on all fatal accidents involving trailers and tankers, with a view to unravelling the causes and proffering preventive measures to appropriate authorities.
Oyeyemi identified use of unlicensed motor boys as drivers, lack of lane discipline, indiscriminate parking along the major corridors, use of additional lights at night and non-usage of retro-reflective tapes to enhance visibility at night as some of the prevailing challenges.
