The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) says it is set for full enforcement of the installation of the Speed Limiting Device on commercial vehicles scheduled to begin nationwide on Wednesday, Feb.1.
Spokesman of the corps, Bisi Kazeem, told newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja that sector and field commands of the agency had been fully mobilised for the exercise.
Kazeem said that the Army, Police, Civil Defence Corps, Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies had been put on standby to provide security support.
According to him, a portal of Speed Limiting Device (SLD) has been created and is operational, and that a short code to confirm the installation of SLD is active.
He also said that Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) had been dispatched with a directive that copies be shared to security agencies within the commands’ areas of jurisdiction.
“A template for daily report has also be designed and forwarded to commands. Booking sheets with Failure to Install Speed Limiting Device (FSLD) have been distributed to field commands.
“To ensure seriousness of purpose, sector commanders have been advised to start with joint patrols with unit commands to have more personnel and create impact for the whole of February.
“Also, commands are to hold mobile court sittings at the onset, and where mobile courts are likely to slow down enforcement, such commands should go ahead without it.
“We have created a situation room to monitor and collate report on daily basis and test-run for the clampdown,’’ the FRSC spokesman said.
He said that defaulters would either pay a fine of N3,000 or have their vehicles impounded, to be released after installing the device.
He explained that the decision to begin with commercial vehicles was informed by their high rate of involvement in road accidents across the country.
“There is an offence known as Failure to Install Speed Limiting Device (FSLD ) which is already embedded in our fine tickets and the fine is N3,000, but it is discretional.
“You may decide to book and allow to go without impounding the vehicle. In some situations you take such a person to mobile courts.
“The court will then decide the fine. It may be lower than the N3,000; it may be higher, depending on the situation.
“What we are trying to do is to register that it has started. It is not necessarily impounding all vehicles in Nigeria in one swoop, thereby making life difficult for road users, no.
“It is a gradual thing that we are starting all over Nigeria, and that is to say it is no longer advisory.
“You either pay fines, or be taken to mobile court to be charged or in extreme situation, you are asked to come and install before your vehicle is released to you after impoundment,’’ Kazeem said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that enforcement of the SLD installation had been postponed thrice since Sept. 1, 2015, following appeal by stakeholders.
Kazeem said that the need to begin with commercial vehicles could not be over-emphasised owing to their high rate of involvement in road accidents across the country.
Citing FRSC statistics, the FRSC spokesman said that commercial vehicles accounted for over 50 per cent of the total number of vehicles involved in road accidents in the country.
He explained that vendors of the device had been selected through a screening process by an inter-agency technical committee.
Membership of the committee, according to him, was drawn from the FRSC, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Automotive Design and Development Council.
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