KEY POINTS
- FRSC transmits from motor park rallies to town hall meetings as part of crusade for road safety.
- Also, the addition of more related events by engaging the local community to use mosques, churches, and schools with the intention of reaching out to more people.
- Citizens urged to contribute to lending supports towards the increase of road traffic crashes and their consequences.
New way of curbing RTC (Road Traffic Crashes) , The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has stated that new ways aimed at reducing RTC will exclude motor park rally but will go to the community level. The Corps Public Education Officer, Assistant Corps Marshal Olusegun Ogungbemide made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Ogungbemide pointed out that the motor park rally approach adopted to educate drivers and travelers at parks to reduce human risks on the roads had lost its aura, meaning had reduced its effectiveness over time. As a result, the FRSC has resorted to town meetings, press releases and transit media communication as effective strategies to address the intended audience.
Moving focus toward the community
The change that has been implemented with the FRSC is increased interaction with the public comprising of town meetings as well as campaigns on the move programmes. ”The Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, okayed the town hall meetings, On transit campaigns and press conferences as appropriate channel towards disseminating on road safety,” Ogungbemide averred.
He said this is to enhance coverage and impact of road safety interventions among others noting the increasing lawlessness on our roads and rising RTC fatalities. The initiative also therefore work in collaboration with different sociocultural domains such as the mosques, the churches, schools among others in order to instill in the larger society the importance of embracing road safety issues.
Active involvement with the society
Ogungbemide however insisted that the campaign should be own and driven by the public especially from commuters who are most often worst affected during crashes. The FRSC explained that it plans to make the next yearly ‘ember months’ special enlightenment exercise different from previous campaigns through town hall meetings and community outreach in order to pass the message across the audience.
“To ensure wider and effective participation, mosques, churches, and other sociocultural settings will become the new venue for participants,” Ogungbemide said. He emphasised that increased engagement of community members in the road safety initiatives is essential in preventing the costs related to the RTCs.
According to The Punch, The FRSC as the focal agency in the management and control of road traffic in Nigeria will continue to cut down on road traffic crashes as it entails more of public enlightenment and enforcement. In his statement, Ogungbemide urged the public to accept the new campaign approaches and motivate them to contribute to making roads safer for users.
