In order to eradicate all incidences of road traffic crashes and its attendant fatalities, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Commission FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has appealed to ondo state government and Local Government Administrations across the Country to relocate markets from the highways.
This will help the existing operational efforts of the FRSC towards enhancing the safety of the entire motoring population.
The FRSC Corps Marshal made this call while reacting to the recent road traffic crash due to break failure that claimed lives at the Ibaka area of Akungba Akoko, Akoko South-West Local Government Area of Ondo State on Saturday evening.
Lamenting the huge loss of lives and damage to property occasioned by the unfortunate but avoidable incident, Dr Oyeyemi explained that the crash occurred at about 6.30 pm yesterday when a DAF Truck loaded with bags of rice rammed into the stalls in the market and crashed into a Toyota Camry saloon car, Toyota corolla and 3 motorcycles.
The fatal crash involved a total of 23 people comprising of 11 male adults, 3 male children, 7 female adults and 2 children.
He said Out of the 23 people involved, 7 people were rescued with different degrees of injuries and taken to the hospital while 16 people got killed and their dead bodies deposited at the Specialist Hospital, Ikare and General Hospital Iwaro Oka mortuaries by the FRSC emergency rescue teams.
The Corps Marshal who spoke extensively on the urgency of such relocation also revealed that the corps was concerned with the rising statistics of innocent citizens who have lost their lives as a result of building markets close to the highways.
He said that no strategy would yield results if government at the grassroots did not rise to the responsibility of checking commercial activities along the highway.
Commiserating with the families of the victims, the Corps Marshal advised road users to be more disciplined, maintain their vehicles regularly and always keep to the prescribed speed limit especially crowded places like markets.