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The Federal Road Safety Corps has warned that drinking habits among motorists can dramatically upturn the trends and statistics that make up the decline recorded in road traffic crashes in the face of obvious signs of progress in road safety, despite the fast paced population growth.
In a statement released by Bisi Kazeem, the Head Media Relations and Strategy of the FRSC, the Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, revealed this in his address titled: “Advancing Road Safety through Consultative Discourse,” delivered to the Beer Sectoral Group CEOs meeting in Lagos.
Oyeyemi said Nigeria’s road fatality per 100,000 human population is presently reduced to 2.99 per cent as at 2015 compared to records of preceding years where the least fatality rate per 100,000 was 3.61 per cent in 2012.
The BSG comprises of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and SAB Miller.
According to Kazeem, the Corps Marshal stated that the FRSC establishment Act 2007 and the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 prohibits and prescribes fines and imprisonment term for driving or attempting to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol and other narcotics, which can lead to fatal road traffic crashes.
He stressed that the Corps is aware that alcohol beverages are available in different forms, with some sold in motor parks as medicinal products, which is often consumed excessively, and the Corps has placed restriction on the sales of alcohol in those areas, even though compliance level is still low.
While dissuading motorists from consuming alcohol beverages, the Corps Marshal stated that the higher the consumption of alcohol beverage, the higher the speed, which in turn results in impaired vision and illusive driving.
In the light of the above, concerted efforts by the Corps to curb the trend of drunk driving by the motoring public involves Public Enlightenment, Random Alcohol Testing in Motor parks, where violators are prosecuted.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of BSG, Nico Vervelde, who is also the Managing Director Nigerian Breweries Plc, revealed that his company and Guinness have been partnering with the FRSC on individual grounds for more than eight years now.
Vervelde expressed his belief that by coming together as a group under the BSG platform to partner the Corps and chart a way forward, it is going to be highly beneficial to the organizations involved in particular and the motoring public in general.
In this vein, he stated that he is looking forward to a fruitful deliberation that will move the transport sector forward by imbibing the culture of responsible drinking and ensuring that drunk driving is discouraged .
Meanwhile, Oyeyemi has urged the BSG to key into the Speed Limiting Device Implementation Project of the Corps considering that it has a large fleet of vehicles and to equally embrace the Safe-To-Load programme to ensure safety always.
