After weeks of campaign against carrying passengers on trailers, the Inter-agency Joint Task Force recently constituted by the corps marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dauda Ali Biu to operate along critical corridors have arrested 35 trailers carrying 982 passengers.
FRSC spokesperson, ACM Jonas Agwu said reports from the field showed that a total of 19 trailers carrying 810 people were apprehended on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
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Also, the JTF team covering Bauchi-Maiduguri general operation area of the Corps also arrested 16 trailers conveying 172 passengers on that route.
The arrests were perfected within the first one week beginning from March 23 to March 30, 2024 of its operations on the identified routes.
Agwu noted that at the points of arrests, the Inter-agency Joint Task Force ensured that all passengers onboard the trailers were dropped, cautioned against the deadly act and asked to join passenger vehicles designed for conveying people.
While the special operations are going on, the corps marshal also directed sector commanders of the states where the act is more prominent, to sustain ongoing engagement with the leadership of road transport unions as well as owners of articulated vehicles.
“This is to ensure that drivers who engage in such traffic violations are cautioned,” the statement added.
The corps marshal had earlier flagged off the Inter-agency Joint Task Force on March 23, 2024 in Kaduna State, comprising the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, State Traffic Management Agencies and Transport Unions.
The mandate of the JTF is to mitigate trailer related crashes and fatalities as well as stop the use of trailers to convey passengers following the spate of avoidable crashes that involved trailers loaded with goods, animals and passengers that led to deaths and injuries.
Amongst these crashes were those of March 4, 2024 in Tashan Yari where a trailer loaded with grains and passengers crashed and killed 12 persons. Others were those of 18th March, 2024 where a trailer loaded with goods and 172 passengers crashed on the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, killing 10 people; as well as that of Sunday, March 31, 2024 in Obajana which led to the death of 13 people.