The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has intensified nationwide sensitisation campaigns to promote safe and responsible driving as vehicular traffic increases during end-of-year travels across the country.
The awareness drive is focused on Nigeria’s first six designated high-traffic corridors, including Lagos–Ibadan–Egbeda; Abuja City Gate–Airport Road–Giri–Kubwa–Aya within the Federal Capital Territory; Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria; Abuja–Lokoja–Zariagi; Benin–Asaba–Awka; and Shagamu–Ijebu Ode–Ore–Benin routes. According to the Corps, these corridors, alongside about 50 others nationwide, serve as major national arteries and record heavy traffic flow during the festive season as Nigerians travel to reunite with family and loved ones.
Speaking on the campaign, the Corps Marshal explained that the initiative is aimed at addressing key human and environmental factors responsible for road crashes along these routes. These include excessive speeding, reckless overtaking, driver fatigue, mobile phone distraction, overloading and poor vehicle maintenance. He noted that when such unsafe driving behaviours are compounded by adverse weather conditions, ongoing construction activities and disregard for traffic signs, busy highways often become scenes of avoidable tragedies.
The FRSC boss further warned that violations of traffic regulations along the identified corridors pose grave and far-reaching dangers. He stressed that speeding, wrongful overtaking, lane indiscipline, drunk driving and disobedience to traffic control devices significantly reduce drivers’ reaction time and increase the severity of crashes. Such infractions, he said, frequently result in loss of vehicle control, head-on collisions, pedestrian knockdowns and multi-vehicle pile-ups that overwhelm emergency response efforts and leave families devastated.
He emphasised that traffic regulations are not punitive measures but life-saving safeguards designed to protect all road users. According to him, every act of non-compliance heightens the risk of fatal outcomes and turns highways meant for mobility into corridors of grief.
The Corps Marshal reiterated that road traffic crashes are not accidents but predictable consequences of unsafe choices made behind the wheel. He therefore urged motorists to cultivate patience and alertness, plan their journeys ahead of time, obey speed limits, avoid night travel where possible and ensure that their vehicles are in good roadworthy condition before setting out.
He added that the end-of-year campaign is focused on saving lives through awareness, education and voluntary compliance, noting that every driver has a responsibility to protect not only their own lives but also those of other road users. Arriving safely at one’s destination, he stressed, remains the ultimate goal of every journey.
As part of measures to curb crashes and unsafe driving behaviours, the Corps Marshal has directed Corridor Commanders to ensure adequate deployment of personnel and make enforcement a top priority throughout the exercise.
He called on all motorists to see road safety as a shared responsibility, reminding them that no journey is too urgent to be completed safely and no destination is worth a life lost.
Comment:*
Nickname*
E-mail*
Website
