By most accounts, speed has been identified as a major cause of road traffic accidents; influencing the risk of occurrence and the severity of injuries arising from such accidents.
The World Health Organisation also states that speed contributes to almost 30 per cent of deaths on the road in high-income countries and about 50 per cent in low-income nations, including Nigeria.
For instance, speeding was blamed for 394 cases or 50.4 per cent of a total of 781 road crashes captured in the November 2016 Road Traffic Crash (RTC) Report of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
The percentage was two points higher in the preceding month of October in which speed limit violation accounted for 52 per cent or 403 cases of 775 accidents recorded nationwide.
In the 2016 RTC Report, 379 persons died and 2,338 others sustained varying degrees of injuries in November while 391 died and 2,557 were injured in October.
This statistics informed the speed control policy of the FRSC which first phase was inaugurated nationwide on Feb. 1.
The policy prescribes the installation of speed limiting device in vehicles to keep them within limits stipulated by the Nigeria Highway Code.
It means that no matter how the driver tends to accelerate, his vehicle cannot exceed the speed limit programmed in the device.
For private cars, the code stipulates a maximum speed limit of 80 kilometre per hour (km/h) on highways and 100 km/h on expressways.
Taxis and buses are expected to maintain speed limit of 80 km/h and 90 km/h on highways and expressways respectively.
The code limits tankers and articulated vehicles to 50 km/h on highways and 60 km/h on expressways.
The first phase of the FRSC policy, which involves full enforcement of the installation of the speed limiting device, applies to commercial vehicles.
The corps believes that controlling vehicle speed would cut road accidents drastically in addition to reducing the impact of crashes when they occur, thereby lessen the severity of injuries sustained by victims.
“The speed limiting device is expected to eliminate the issue of speed and loss of control, which accounts for 16 per cent of the causative factors of RTC,’’ Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi said.
The FRSC boss explained that the decision to begin with commercial vehicles was informed by the fact that majority of Nigerians depended on them for transportation.
“We have more than 12.5 million vehicles to a human population of 180 million in Nigeria. Not all Nigerians can own vehicles, so the dependency is on commercial public transportation,’’ he said.
According to FRSC statistics, 60 per cent of vehicles involved in crashes nationwide are commercial.
Similarly, the spokesman of the agency, Mr Bisi Kazeem, said that the casualty figures in accidents involving commercial vehicles were the highest compared to other categories of vehicles.
“In a situation where somebody is carrying 18 passengers, he is probably carrying more than 18 families. When there is a crash and all of them die, there will be cries and wailings in 18 homes.
“We have equally observed that commercial vehicle drivers are the most reckless of all the categories. This is why we have started with them,’’ Kazeem explained.
However, some transportation experts and stakeholders have urged the FRSC to look beyond speed limiter at other sustainable and more effective policies to check road accidents in the country.
According to them, experience in many other countries has shown that speed limit enforcement only has a short-term effect on reducing speeds unless accompanied by sustained measures.
Mr Adeyemi Adedokun of the Road Safety for Africa therefore advocated strict regulation of the drivers licensing process in addition to special training for commercial vehicle drivers.
“Have you ever thought of where commercial vehicle drivers in the country learned how to drive? How many driving schools offer trick-driving classes in the country?
“Most of these drivers learned on the job and our yearly accident records tell the rest of the story,’’ Adedokun said.
Irrespective of this, Mobolaji Olaseni, said speed limiting device policy was to generate revenue and promote some business interests.
He said the focus should rather be on road-worthiness certification of vehicles, use of reflectors and training of commercial drivers.
But Kazeem said issues raised by Olaseni had been captured in the 2017 Strategic Goals of FRSC.
“The goals are enhancement of public education and enlightenment, improvement of enforcement and post-crash care, advancement in road safety administration and strengthening of professionalism and transparency.
“We will support this policy with the continued training of commercial vehicle drivers. We are also committed to the restoration of the integrity of the country’s vehicle licensing system.
“Not only that, overloading is being met with appropriate sanctions and very soon, we will go after those rickety vehicles on our highways.
“Let us first battle this issue of speed to ensure that we have at least 60 per cent compliance level,’’ he said.
The management of FRSC also clarifies that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the FRSC was neither involved in the sale of the speed limiter nor have any link with accredited vendors of the device.
Oyeyemi said the vendors were selected by a technical committee of the FRSC whose membership includes the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Automotive Design and Development Council.
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