The Corps Marshal Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, has ordered the corps’ field operatives to clampdown on overloaded private school buses plying Nigerian roads as part of organised efforts to reduce crashes involving school children.
The spokesman of the Corps, Bisi Kazeem, who made this known in a statement on Saturday, said that the Corps Marshal had directed Sector Commanders across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory to impound at sight, any private school bus carrying more than the stipulated number of school children in the bus.
“This operation will be carried out in the morning and afternoon when schools close for the day,” according to the statement.
Kazeem said the clampdown had become very necessary going by the deliberate efforts made by school proprietors, their management and the bus drivers to make mockery of established laws possibly to achieve some economic gains, at the detriment of the lives of the school children conveyed to and fro school by those buses.
“We have tried to enlighten these drivers and the proprietors on many occasions to make them comply with the minimum safety standards on passengers carriage but they kept contravening the laws.
“The Corps is championing child safety campaign as it targets to reduce and possibly eradicate all crashes involving school children on our roads,” Kazeem quoted Oyeyemi as saying.
In the same vein, the Corps Marshal had directed re-training of all drivers of this category nationwide to further solidify the anticipated total safety of school children.
He enjoined the public to always tune to the National Traffic Radio 107.1FM to report any of such buses seen with overloaded school children or any obstruction or emergency noticed on the road for immediate action.
“The station can also be reached through its Social Media Handles as follows; WHATSAPP 08052997848, FACEBOOK TRAFFICRADIO 1, TWITTER @TRAFFICRADIO 1, INSTAGRAM TRAFFICRADIO 1. Or Call the following numbers; GLO 08052998090, MTN 09067000015, and SMS on GLO 08052998012 and the FRSC toll free emergency line 122,” according to the statement.
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