Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi says his officers are determined to enforce strict traffic rules to ensure a hitch-free Yuletide.

Part of the enforcement will include use of speed limit devices by commercial vehicles and other articulated vehicles during the festive season, Mr Oyeyemi said, during official traffic monitoring visit on Lagos-Ibadan expressway and other corridors on Thursday, in Lagos.

He said the measure will ensure sanity and curb crashes, especially with repair works done on several roads by contractors.

“We are battle ready to enforce speed limit devices on commercial vehicles to further cut down the rate of crashes on the road.

“Our officials are focusing more on the commercial vehicles because of of number of passengers in the vehicles; some 12, 18 passengers or more, and in some cases the crashes involving these vehicles are fatal because of the number of people involved.

“But the present figures show that we have achieved significant reductions in road crashes in the last 12 months.

“The quality of work done on the road now by the road contractors are exceptional, that is why we are focusing more on enforcing speed limit device to curtail excess speed by the motorists,” Mr Oyeyemi said.

According to him, any motorist found wanting during the random check at this period will be prosecuted and have his/her vehicle impounded.

The corps marshal said that the FRSC would also focus more on overloading, another cause of crashes on the road.

“Our men are still going to focus on overloading, drunk driving, and driving without valid driver’s licence will also be prosecuted and the vehicles impounded,” he said.

He said that Lagos-Ibadan expressway would be free of traffic as efforts had been put in place to deploy more logistics and patrol vehicles to the corridor.

According to him, in the last three weeks, Lagos-Ibadan expressway has been free of gridlock and obstructions as the personnel have been working with the stakeholders to ensure free flow of traffic.

“I was in Iwo Road in Ibadan yesterday, the road was free; likewise Enugu, Ilorin, Asaba up to the northern part of the country, there was free vehicular movement in all these corridors.

“We have been working with the states to ensure the roads are free, especially Lagos-Ibadan expressway with high vehicular density.

“We want to assure the road users that nobody will sleep on the road as a result of gridlocks during this festive period, ” Mr Oyeyemi said.

He said that 1,300 patrol vehicles had been deployed nationwide for free flow of traffic with towing vehicles and motorcycles, to ensure victims are promptly rescued and obstructions removed, to restore normal traffic.

Mr Oyeyemi appealed to motorists to shun night journey, avoid driving rickety vehicles and obey all traffic rules to avoid crashes during the festivities.

(NAN)