15th December, 2016
Mr Jibril Yemi, Secretary, Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council, has warned travellers against boarding vehicles from illegal motor parks during the yuletide.
Yemi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that the measure would protect passengers against criminals.
He said the union had evolved measures to check overloading and speeding by their members as well as its Road Accident Insurance Scheme (RAIS) in case of accidents.
According to him, the union has also put strategies in place to ensure a hitch-free movement of travellers, including enlightenment and training on safety.
“Our appeal to passengers is to board vehicles from NURTW designated motor parks because we have measures in place to check overloading, overspeeding and the insurance we are talking about.
“This RAIS is in consultation with FRSC because accident, as we all know, is something that is not planned for and RAIS provides manifest for the travelling public to fill in their next of kin in case of accident.
“Under RAIS, we have underwriters and HMOs who handle the treatment and payment of premium to accident victims and our drivers as well,’’ he said.
Yemi explained that because of RAIS, passengers were made to fill in their details in the manifest, adding that the premium was part of the cost of transportation.
He added that whenever there was an accident, FRSC officials were on ground to take the victims to the nearest hospital where they would be treated free of charge.
According to him, in a case of permanent disability, NURTW pays the sum of N150,000 through the insurance company as support to the victims and also empower them after.
“In the case of death, we pay N250,000 to the next of kin.
“RAIS has been in existence since 2010 and has been functioning since then and we have even sponsored programmes on NTA where we were presenting cheques to the victims,’’ he said.
However, the NURTW scribe urged FRSC to expand the enforcement of speed limit device to private cars, arguing that majority of road crashes involved SUVs which are private vehicles.
He also disclosed that the experience from the vehicles using the speed limit device was not too impressive, saying the passengers are yet to get used to the slow movement.
“We have subsequently objected to its introduction, not because the idea is not good but because of the cost of the device.
“There is no guarantee on it and that is why our people asked us to object which is why we pleaded for time for its enforcement which the FRSC granted us till February 2017.
“Don’t be surprised that when they tell you that speed limiter device costs N25,000 or N40,000, there are other costs attached to it like the speedometer, fuel cottage and so on.
“The cost is running into N70,000 and most of these vehicles are on hire purchase which our drivers struggle to pay roughly N170,000 monthly and the passengers are not flowing because of the recession,” he said.