Evelyn Usman
18 November 2008
The Lagos State Police Command has declared total war on reckless motorists as well as careless motorcyclists in the state, following the alarming number of casualties recorded in road accident in the last three weeks. Statistics showed that over 35 lives have perished in separate road accidents in the state in the period under review.
A breakdown of the record exclusively made available to Vanguard, showed that twelve persons lost their lives in multiple road accidents along the Badagry expressway and the Oshodi/ Apapa expressway alone.
The record also revealed that fortnight ago, another twelve persons lost their lives in separate road accidents in the state, with some resulting from reckless driving.
Just at the weekend, eleven persons met their sudden death in five road accidents. Seven of the victims died in Badagry area alone.
Reacting to the incidents, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba attributed some of them to recklessness and arrant disregard to traffic rules.
citing an instance with one of the incidents weekend at Badagry, in which five persons died, Mba said; " an unidentified driver of a truck with registration number AK 517 JJB was driving against traffic and in the process had a head-on collision with a Gulf saloon car that was rightfully on its lane, killing five persons on the spot. Such incident and several others could have been avoidable only if motorists keep to driving rules."
It was against this backdrop that he disclosed that stringent measures would henceforth be taken against any motorist or motorcyclist who drove recklessly or violates traffic rules, stressing that particular focus would be on truck drivers.
"Henceforth, we are going to be very hard on motorists particularly truck drivers and motorcyclists who drive recklessly or carelessly. The Police has a constitutional obligation to ensure safety of lives and property of the citizens and as such we will not fold our hands and allow reckless drivers to continue to waste human lives", he stated.
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