“Operation Crash the Crash, Speed Kills”, a campaign to reduce road accidents during this Christmas and New Year festivities, has been launched in Abia State.

The campaign which is a partnership between the Abia State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps and Abia State government is part of the end-of-year patrol campaign.

The two parties stressed the need to minimise the road crashes that usually come with the yuletide season due to increased vehicular movements.

The FRSC which is partnering the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Orientation, educated road users on the factors that cause road crashes and urged them to avoid such.

Sector Commander, Stella Uchegbu, said that the campaign was aimed at “ensuring the full actualisation of our 2016 strategic goals of improving enforcement and public education, reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatality by 25 per cent.”

“We are here today to enlighten all road users that we have a role to play to put an end to the carnages we usually witness during this time of the year thereby ensuring a hitch-free yuletide celebration,” Uchegbu said.

Special Adviser to the Abia Governor on Public Orientation, Dr. Anthony Agbazuere, said that drivers should not be regarded as the only road users, adding that passengers were also expected to play their part in minimise road crashes.

Agbazuere, who is a Constitutional Lawyer and a Human Rights activist, emphasised the need for road users to always obey traffic rules and regulations as “lawlessness does not take anybody anywhere,” adding that “to crash the crash, every road user must get involved and play their parts.”

He advised that it was high time drivers were made to pass through driving school and properly get certified to ply the roads instead of passing through makeshift arrangements characterised by fraud.

Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike, said that the campaign was crucial at this time of the year, adding that it was the height of callousness for people to lose their lives due to the carelessness of road users.

He lamented that many traffic laws and regulations exist in Nigeria but drivers don’t obey them without waiting for the FRSC to arrest and sanction them due to the fact that many drivers lack safety consciousness as they did not undergo proper training.

The Abia Speaker lauded FRSC for introducing speed limit devices and urged vehicle owners to embrace the idea as it helps reduce over speeding and its attendant road crashes.

Other stakeholders at the flag-off campaign emphasised the need for road users to make it their responsibility to save lives on the roads.

The traditional ruler of Eziama Mgbaja Autonomous Community in Umuahia Ibeku, Eze Chiabuotu Emenike, urged FRSC to nip disobedience to traffic rules in the bud by establishing its units at motor parks as it would tackle the problem of overloading.

He further called for a deepening of road safety discussions at every forum of stakeholders while continuous road safety education in informal way should be intensified.

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