DRIVERS WARNED AGAINST OVERLOADING, RECKLESS DRIVING

In order to promote safety and ensure sanity on roads, articulated vehicle drivers and other motorists have been warned against overloading and reckless driving, which has been responsible for loss of many lives.

The Commander, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Commander, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE), Mr. Adekunle Ajibade who gave this warning in an interview with journalists in his office, at Ota, explained that, for a truck to carry forty-five tons, which equates nine hundred bags of cement, was a big risk, saying, the force of the load always leads to break failure, which usually results to accident.

"The effect of this is over-weight on the roads and even the trucks. This usually leads to gradual malfunctioning of the breaking system and eventually prompt its total collapse which results in failure to obey command, when the driver applies the brake. This is the reason why we gave specification for vehicles that ply some roads within the state, roads including the newly reconstructed Osi-Ota/Navy Music/ Ikola Road in the Ado-Odo/Ota local government area.

“We made it clearly an offence for heavy articulated vehicles (trucks) to ply the road, stipulating heavy punishment for erring drivers. If we allow heavy duty vehicles to ply and park indiscriminately, on the road, it may not survive the test of long time. We just have to plead with all motorists to cooperate with the government by ensuring facilities provided are used judiciously”, he said.

He emphasised that the Road Traffic Law states that, 'no vehicle should carry more than 30 ton of goods on Nigeria roads, which was equivalent to 600 bags of cement' but most of the time, the cement laden trucks carry 900 bags (45 tons) and 1200 bags (60 tons), which had adverse effects on roads and break.

Ajibade warned motorists to desist from this non-charlatan attitude in order to reduce the road accident to the barest minimum, enjoining commercial drivers to drive safely and exercise maximum patience while plying the road, as government will not condone ‘’I don't care attitude of the drivers’’.

Also speaking, a commercial bus driver, Mr. Monsuru Osunlana, who escaped a ghastly accident between his car and a truck at toll-gate, Ota, recently, commended the State government for equipping TRACE and other security agencies with rescue equipment, which had saved many lives, including himself and his wife.