Against the background of incessant accidents with attendant loss of lives and property, Lagos State government has banned poorly maintained vehicles especially trucks and petroleum tankers from entering the metropolis.
The state said, Wednesday, it would be deploying officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Vehicle Inspectorate Officers (VIOs) to the toll-gate and other major entrances into the city to turn back such vehicles.
In what has indeed become a regular occurrence in Lagos, a tanker loaded with petrol fell on the Gbagada express road last Tuesday and spilled it contents but was prevented from igniting fire by the prompt response of LASTMA, police and officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who mobilised to the scene.
The state also recently organised a meeting during which stakeholders in the transportation sector gathered to discuss solutions to traffic gridlocks, frequent accidents and wrong use of the roads, among others, and their implications for the economy.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to catch them young and make them agents of change, the state government has concluded plans to introduce transportation advocacy education in both public and private schools in the state.
The objective of the programme, which will be launched Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere is to provide basic traffic knowledge to children in order for them to develop a positive road user attitude and behaviours.
Briefing newsmen on the programme, Wednesday, at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, Kayode Opeifa, special adviser on transportation to the governor, explained that the children will be engaged as change agents and vehicles of communicating traffic safety values to their parents and other adults.
He added that the programme will also inculcate traffic safety values and ideals in young citizens and create road safety awareness in them and potentially reduce risk to road traffic accidents.
The governor’s aide informed that a holistic approach of impacting traffic safety awareness through a 4-pronged strategy has been adopted which include establishment of traffic safety clubs in schools, enhanced traffic safety zones, school bus driver safety training and annual road safety awareness programme.
The programme, he said, is a carefully designed and unique for the children, adding that the target group is particularly important because they are the future of the community and that they will pass the message across to their parents.