The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has launched an inter agency taskforce to enforce ban on overloading trailers along Kaduna Abuja highway.
The agency said the Kaduna-Abuja highway is becoming a death trap for motorists due to crashes involving trailers carrying goods, animals, and passengers on the road.
According to the commission, in the last couple of months, the highways have been bedeviled by avoidable road crashes involving trailers often overloaded.
The Corps Marshal, Dauda Ali Biu, represented by the Assistant Corps Marshal, Zubairu Mato, who is also the Head of Federal Operations at the Headquarters, raised concerns during the official flag-off ceremony of the Inter-agency Task Force to tackle overloading by articulated vehicles on the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Saturday.
He said the situation has led to the death of innocent citizens and destruction of properties, adding that the ugly situation is happening irrespective of the aggressive public enlightenment and sensitization campaigns carried out by the Corps across its formations nationwide.
"May I state at this point that the Kaduna-Abuja highway is a bustling artery connecting many states to the southern part of Nigeria for commerce, which is becoming a death trap to motorists as a result of crashes involving trailers carrying goods, animals, and passengers."
"This tragedy, when it occurs, usually results in a quantum loss of lives and properties in a single crash beyond imagination. The crash does not only claim lives but leaves behind shattered families with dashed hopes and dreams, as well as traumatizing sympathizers that witnessed it," he said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He said the Task Force has become overly significant because recent developments around the major corridors of the nation's highways have been quite pathetic and further underscores the need for urgent implementation of strategic measures that will lead to compliance with all established traffic regulations by all stakeholders in the road transportation sector.
He said the flag-off is premised on the urgent need to guard against the escalation of road traffic crashes, fatalities, and injuries on major roads.
In his remarks, Kaduna Sector Commander Kabiru Yusuf Nadabo said Kaduna-Abuja highway recorded avoidable fatal accidents which claimed so many lives and properties hence the need to use the taskforce to reduce road accidents.
He said the task force, which comprises of Police, Civil Defence, DSS, Kaduna Traffic Laws Enforcement Agency (KASTLEA), is not concerned about revenue generation but safety of the passengers on the highway.
He charges the members of the task force to be civil and focus only on overloaded articulated vehicles with animals, goods, and humans.
