25th January, 2019
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Cross River chapter, on Thursday in Calabar, organised a sensitisation campaign for tanker drivers in the state on the dangers of reckless driving.
The state Chairman of CILT, Dr Chijioke Ukadike, said during the occasion that the campaign became necessary following frequent road crashes involving tanker drivers in the state and the attendant loss of lives.
“We decided to carry out this campaign in view of two recent incidents that occurred within the past two weeks involving tankers.
“The one in Odukpani witnessed loss of many lives while nobody died in the one in Biase.
“Apart from the drivers we also want to sensitise the residents on the dangers of rushing to scoop petroleum products immediately tankers fall. This is very dangerous and must be avoided,” Ukadike said.
He identified bad portions of roads in the state as the major cause of the crashes and called on government to expedite action on the rehabilitation of the roads to reduce the carnage.
“We want both the State and Federal Governments to expedite action on the rehabilitation of the Calabar/Itu road and Odukpani-Ikom road,” he said.
The chairman blamed most of the crashes on recklessness of some drivers while on steering.
In his remarks, a representative of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) in the state, Mr Fredrick Okuono, described the actions of some truck drivers while on steering as “very dangerous.”
He cautioned them against careless driving, adding that some of them indulged in drunkenness and other addictions while driving.
He said that the FRSC Command in the state had often drawn the attention of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to the poor state of federal roads in the state.
The representative of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Mr Mmeregini Charles, on his part urged traditional rulers in the state to caution their subjects against scooping fuel from accident scenes.
“When tankers fall it is not Salah or Christmas; it is death and people should desist from scooping fuel in such a situation,” he said.