Lagos issues 431,321 Road Worthiness Certificates in 6 months

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government said it has issued 431,321 Road Worthiness Certificates, RWC, to vehicles in the state in the last six months.

Commissioner for Transportation, Ladi Lawanson disclosed this at the weekend at a news conference to announce the kick-off of the Safety Campaign Week of the Vehicle Inspection Service, VIS, holding between March 12 and 19.

According to Lawanson, the VIS had automated the issuance of Road Worthiness Certificate and that from August, 2017, the agency had issued over 431,321 RWC to vehicles in Lagos.

“Under the referral arrangement system, 93,768 vehicles have visited the Lagos State Computerised Vehicle Inspection Service, LACVIS centres between April 2017 and December 2017. Of these, 53,970 vehicles passed, 39,798 failed and 29,977 of those that failed had a retest and passed. It is noteworthy that over 60% of the vehicles that failed did so as a result of faulty brakes while others failed due to issues relating to lighting, suspensions, tyres and so on,” he disclosed.

However, the commissioner said this year’s safety campaign week would focus on operations of the VIS as they concerned the importance of Magneto-Optical Machine/AutoVIN for pre-registration inspection; new mode of enforcement in the State Automatic Number Plate Recognition Device (ANPR), VIS Accident Investigation (AIU), e-testing of Driver’s licence applicants, important of C-Caution and Retro-Reflective Tape, vehicle particulars and driver’s licence procedures and accredited issuing Offices, verification of RWC using Short Message Service (SMS) via 38321 or visit www.dvis.lg.gov.ng and the importance of vehicle maintenance.

Lawanson disclosed that figures from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), revealed that 7,349 Nigerians were injured in the road traffic crashes in 2017, while 6,855 of them were adult (93%) and the remaining 494 (7%) were children.

“Similarly, 1,306 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in fourth quarters of  2017. 1,200 of them were adults, representing 92% while the remaining 106 were children, representing 8%. Of the estimated Vehicle Population in Nigeria as at 2016, Lagos takes the lead with a record 1, 251, 894 of the national figure of 11,547,236.

“Yet we have the lowest accident rate of 78 cases involving 531 persons. The state would not have achieved this landmark record without the various strategic measures put in place to curb road accidents on our roads. To ensure consistency and prompt service delivery, we have adopted the use of relevant technology to mitigate risks, prevent damages, compliance rate, and reduce hazards to the barest minimum.

“The deployment of smart, connected sensors, combined with machine-learning-powered analytics tools, enable the gathering of information, predictions and decision making that will ensure safer roads, leading to drastic reduction, if not total elimination of road accidents,” he explained.

Lawanson lamented that human factors were considered the major contributing feature to road fatalities and accidents as a result of reckless driving, distracted driving, over-speeding and other habits that negated the principles of defensive and safe driving.