FRSC to join vehicle owners in prosecution if drivers break road safety rules
As part of renewed drive to curtail rising recklessness and abuse of road safety provisions, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said on Wednesday that henceforth, owners of articulated vehicles including tankers and trailers are to be arraigned and punished alongside their drivers involved in accidents, as a result of reckless driving.
The Lagos State Sector Commander, Mr. Hyginus Omeje, opened up on the new policy in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
He said “If your truck is involved in an accident and it kills anybody, in addition to prosecuting such drivers for manslaughter, owners will now also be prosecuted, to serve as a deterrent to others”.
“We will now use the Lagos State Traffic Law to prosecute both the drivers and the owners of such vehicles. “The state traffic law says that both drivers and owners of tankers and trucks involved in accidents will now be prosecuted.
“That is the angle we are exploring now; our lawyers are reaching out to the Police, so that we can use the state traffic law to prosecute such persons,’’ he said.
According to him, “we have seen over time that tankers and trucks will get involved in accidents, and the drivers will abandon the vehicles and run away only for the owners to later end up in picking such vehicles, pay whatever the fine is and continue the business”.
Omeje decried the old age and poor maintenance statuses of articulated vehicles on highways and appealed to owners of tankers and trucks to ensure that their vehicles do not endanger the lives of other road users.
The Sector Commander used the occasion to call on the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) and the Association of Corporate Fleet Operators (ACFO), to ensure that their trucks were in good condition before putting them on the roads, to avoid accidents.
