Health ministry seek state governments' support on speed limit

The Federal Ministry of Health and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), have sought the support of the 36 state governments on the installation of Speed Limiting Device (SLD) in commercial vehicles.

This was contained in a statement by Mr Bisi Kazeem, Head, Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC, issued on Saturday.

It said that the appeal was made when the FRSC Corps Marshal, Mr Boboye Oyeyemi visited the Minister of State, Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, in his office.

``They both agreed on need to involve the state governments in the SLD policy, bearing in mind that some of the states maintain fleet of vehicles for commercial transportation.

``They also made a resolution on the need to construct Helipads in some Teaching Hospitals and Medical Centres across the states for easy evacuation of crash victims through air ambulances.

``This will save more lives whenever there is fatal accident.

``There is need for relevant law enforcement agencies to check health conditions of drivers especially their eye sights,’’ the statement said.

It added that Oyeyemi had told the minister that FRSC teams nationwide have been directed to collaborate with immunisation officials administering polio drugs to children in transit.

The statement quoted Osagie as saying that ``this is the beginning of a new effort in this era of change to plan on how to tackle the challenges emanating from the various disasters.

``We believe that the partnership will be of great service to the generality of the people.''

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that April 1, 2016 has been put as deadline for the installation of speed limiting device in commercial vehicles nationwide.