The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, has once again emphasised the critical role which installation of speed limiting device, otherwise known as speed limiter or governor can play in reducing the incidences of road crashes on Nigerian roads.
Speed is a key risk factor in road traffic injuries, influencing both the risk of a road crash as well as the severity of the injuries that result from crashes.
It increases driver’s response time to objects and increases risk of collision, reduces the driver’s ability to steer safely and around, curves and objects on the roads, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation.
Speed limiting device also called speed limiter or governor, however, is used to limit the top speed of a vehicle by not allowing the vehicle to accelerate beyond pre-set speed limit.
It lower speed results in less fuel consumption by vehicles, cuts down vehicle maintenance cost and slows down depreciation value thus vehicle last longer.
Speed limiter also significantly impact positively in changing the individual
driving behaviour which has been hard to achieve over the years and reduce the speed of vehicle to pre-set limit thus reducing overall crash risk and likely to lessen severity of crash.
Analysts also believes that it will equally engender good monitoring mechanism for vehicle owners’/fleet operators, engender compliance with the ECOWAS
mandate, fulfilment of the Corps statutory functions through good practice as well as assist to eliminate losses associated with speed related crashes.
These losses are usually in vehicles loss, damage to roads and road infrastructure, house, goods etc, assist to preserve the young virile members of the society from deaths and maiming associated with speed induced crashes.
Speed limiter also enables more relaxed driving and lower insurance premium
as consequence of fewer crashes.
Traditionally, the most widely used strategies to mitigate drivers’ speed behaviour, through education, training and re-training, engineering (by providing speed limiting signs and of speed calming measures in the design and construction of highways, introduction of speed radar guns and enforcement., but due largely to their unimpressive effectiveness, direct control of the vehicle speed becomes a better approach.
It has been established that lower speed variance can be linked to fewer crashes and compliance with speed limits reduces the chances of vehicles getting involved in frequency of crashes and severity of bodily injuries.
Its in view of the critical nature of this that the regulation on compulsory use of speed limiting device on vehicles in Nigeria has been in the FRSC Establishment Act and the National Road Traffic Regulation since 2004 and retained in the subsequent amendments.
The regulations stipulate that “All motor vehicles plying the highway shall be in possession of good electric or air horn, jack, wheel spanner, tools, fire extinguisher, inflated spare tyre, first aid box, emergency warning triangles or cones, laminated windscreen and mirror, speed governor, wipers, insurance certificate and road worthiness certificate.”
Schedule of the traffic regulation. the maximum speed limit for all categories of vehicles include:
Speed KM/HR Built-up Area Highways Express
CARS 50 80 100
Taxi and
Buses 50 80 90
TANKERS/
TRAILERS 45 50 60
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