FRSC urges motorists to apply ‘common sense speed’

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has urged motorists to apply “common sense speed” when driving in the rain.

FRSC’s Head of Media and Strategy, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, gave the advice in Abuja on Thursday.

“Driving during the rainy season is a specialized (thing), we call it specialized driving situation.

“First of all, we tell people (motorists) to do what is known as common sense speed.

“Common sense entails a situation where even when you are allowed 100km per hour when it is raining you reduce (speed) to a rate you can control.

“It is called common sense speed.

“Reason being that most of the time, visibility is always blurred; there is foggy weather; sometimes, hazy weather before the fog and sometimes, it will rain so heavily that your wipers will not be able to wipe the rain off your windscreen properly.

“So, while we are advocating that this period, your wipers must be working adequately well, your rear lights and frontal lights must be working adequately well for you to see and be seen.”

Kazeem said the commission was intensifying sensitization the motoring public at motor parks, in Churches, in Mosques and other public places, to the need for them to drive with care during the season.

“I must confess to you that we have had pockets of crashes during this rainy season.

“I won’t say it is normal, but it is expected.

“There is always road crash increases during this time – rainy season.

“But at the same time, a mechanism has already been put in place to prevent such.

“Where they happen, we have about 37 ambulance points now which make rescue operation very easy.”

Kazeem said that the rate of road accidents in 2016 reduced by 12 percent when compared to the rate in 2015.