1,048 persons killed in tanker, trailer accidents

No fewer than 1,048 lives had been lost to accidents involving petroleum tankers and trailers across the country between January and November this year, Boboye Oyeyemi, corps marshal, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), has disclosed.

Oyeyemi said a total of 770 road traffic crashes involving 4,365 tankers and trailers were recorded within the period. He gave the figures during an interactive session with stakeholders in road transport sector in Abuja, adding that about 4,365 people were also injured during the period under review. According to him, crashes involving tankers and trailers had been on the increase since 2014 as 1,862 people were killed while 1,285 deaths were recorded in 2015.

“On comparative notes, it was observed that while there was 31.9 per cent reduction in road traffic crashes between 2014 and 2015, 38.6 per cent was recorded between January and November this year.

“The rates of tankers and trailers involvement were 15.5 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively within the period. The summary of crashes involving tankers, trailers and trucks from week one to 48 2016 show 14,984 people were involved in a total of 7934 crashes.

“Among these, tankers recorded over 252 crashes; trailers 518; and trucks 1,276, while other vehicles accounted for 10884, bringing the number of crashes vehicles to 12,959 killing 1,748 and leaving 6,365 injured,’’ he said.

Oyeyemi said that the FRSC would continue to put measures in place to address the challenges and had initiated a new partnership with relevant stakeholders in road safety to curb them. He urged tanker owners to put in place safety valve to avoid spillage of content of tankers in case of crashes.

Oyeyemi said to regulate safe practice for effective and safe delivery of liquid hydrocarbon in Nigeria, FRSC had initiated a safe-to-load programme and deployed 168 personnel to 43 tank farms in Nigeria. He added that within one year, 103,201 vehicles had been inspected to determine their level of compliance with the minimum safety standard and 78,121 met the standard, while 25,080 failed.

The corps marshal said to ensure safer road environment especially during the festive periods, the corps mapped out strategies to address traffic challenges by deploying personnel to identified black spots. He urged all Nigerians and stakeholders to join the campaign to “crash the crash’’ in the festive season.