Former VC attributes accidents to bad roads

Pioneer Vice Chancellor of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Prof. Kayode Oyesiku, has attributed most of the road crashes in the country to bad roads.

Oyesiku said this at the 3rd annual Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He said road crashes were also caused by abandoned road projects.

Oyesiku cited the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as an example of a major highway that had been under construction for about eight years.

He said the majority of fatal crashes recorded on highways  within Lagos and Ogun states were caused at diversions where construction was ongoing.

He urged the governments to always ensure the prompt release of funds for road construction.

The don advised the Federal Government to encourage rail transportation to reduce pressure on the roads and make them durable.

The TRACE Corps Commander, Abdulfatai Olaseni Ogunyemi, said “the conference is a platform to generate ideas, fashion out ways, strategies, techniques to rebrand and reposition the corps towards curbing all forms of indiscipline and menaces causing crashes on the roads”.

He said the exercise should be a platform expected to equip the middle level officers with the requisite know-how to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness.

He said: “TRACE was established by an enabling law of the state House of Assembly as the government traffic agency saddled with the responsibility of ensuring safer roads for the users within the state”.

He said the corps personnel had been from time to time exposed to different levels of training, retraining, capacity building, workshops and seminars aimed  at bringing about professionalism that would guarantee effective service delivery.