PEACE MASS TRANSIT KILLS 44 PEOPLE AND DISABLES 150 PEOPLE WITHIN 18 MONTHS

One of the accident scenes of Peace Mass Transit

This is very horrible!!! Statistics from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has it that road crashes involving the vehicles of Peace Mass Transit (PMT) have killed not less than 44 people, leaving 150 others disabled in 18 months. According to the same statistics, 95% of the casualties are indigenes of Enugu State. This is totally unacceptable. What has the Enugu State Ministry of Transport done to ensure that the indigenes of the state do not perish like chickens again in the vehicles of that transport company?

The FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, stated that accidents involving the transport company were alarming in the first half of 2016 i.e. between January and June this year. According to him, 11 crashes were recorded involving 95 casualties, out of which 37 were killed.

Mr. Oyeyemi went further to state that between January 2015 and December 2015, the company’s drivers were involved in eight crashes affecting 62 casualties; while seven were killed, 55 of them sustained vary degree of injuries. The figures bring the total killing and injuries recorded by the organisation in recent time to 44 and 150 respectively.

The Corps Marshal, who summoned the management of the organisation last Tuesday, said the high rate of the accidents has become unacceptable.

He said: “This is why the FRSC has decided to call this meeting today for members of the Corps and management of the company to critically examine the factors responsible for the falling safety standards among the company’s drivers with a view to finding lasting solutions to the menace.”

Head, Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, said in a release that the agency has ordered the company to put appropriate measures in place for safety of passengers and other road users.

The Chairman of Peace Mass Transit Limited, who was represented at the occasion by the Executive Director, Operations, Mr. Ugwu Chidubem, assured the Corps that the company was concerned by the upsurge, adding that adequate safety measures had been put in place to address its reoccurrence, some of which include installing speed limiting devices in the vehicles, avoiding overloading, regular retraining of drivers and routine checks on the vehicle.

The question is why is it that the management of the transport company has not put in place adequate measures to address the frequent cases of crashes since last year? What baffles us is that the accidents involving buses of the company are frequently being reported in the media, yet, every day, we see thousands of travelers patronizing them.