Cdr Adekunle Ajibade: TRACE Takes Steps To Reduce Menace Of Road Mishap
The Traffic Compliance Enforcement Agency TRACE has concluded arrangements to embark on the training and retraining of teachers in primary and secondary schools on the enforcement of traffic control within the Ado-Odo-Ota Local Government Council Area of Ogun State under the auspices of Commander Seni Ogunyemi.
The agency reveals that the two-day training would involve about five hundred (500) Head Teachers from Primary and Secondary Schools in a combined training on effective traffic control, while those trained will be saddled with the responsibility of imparting the knowledge garnered to other teachers in their schools for the advancement of the same purpose.
The need to have well-trained road crossers from among school teachers should be a welcomed idea, which the training programme is about to provide to the array of schools in the Ado-Odo- Ota Local government Area and environs.
It was gathered that some private schools have taken the initiative by employing expert children crossers, but not all the schools can afford such personnel, especially government schools, so the need to carry the training of the teachers is apt at this time and should be embraced by all schools. With the success of the programme in Ado-Odo, it is expected to be replicated in other parts of Ogun State soon.
The programme is expected to be more practical than theoretical involving other facilitators from sister agencies, including the Federal Road Safety Commission, (FRSC), who will be presenting various road signs, their meanings and purposes. The Red Cross Society will take the teachers through the rudiment of crash victims rescue.
The Nigerian Police will also teach participants how to incident crash cases and other legal angles.
According to the TRACE Commander, the training is part of the many initiatives designed to drastically reduce the alarming number of crashes recorded in the Gateway state last year.
The drive to reduce the number of crashes on Ogun roads started late last year at the 6th annual Corps Commander Conference with the theme, ‘Panacea For Our Traffic Woes: Improving Road Safety Through Technological Driven Road and Traffic Management, where Professor Kayode Oyesiku, an expert in transport technology elaborated ways to apply technology for improving road safety and ultimately reduce the number of crashes on the roads.
According to him, the first step taken by the agency since the beginning of the year was to accentuate and effectively provide traffic management and prompt rescue service throughout the 12 Ogun major traffic corridors in the state, including; the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Atan-Lusada-Agbara-Badagry Expressway, Interchange-Sagamu-Ijebu/ Ode-Benin/Ore Expressway, Abeokuta-Kobape-Siun-Interchange Expressway, and Lafenwa/Rounder-Olorunda-Aiyetoro-Imeko-Ilara Border among others.
Road Safety experts say every four minutes a child is prematurely lost on the roads of this world. Many more are injured, often severely. These traumatic events cause immeasurable suffering and grief and at times economic hardship for families and friends.
They pointed out that there is a Road Safety Education Curriculum for Secondary Schools from JSS 1 – JSS 3 and SS1 – SS3, as recommended by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), about twelve years ago and approved by the Federal Executive Council.
It was also recommended that Governments while constructing roads should give priority attention to the construction of pedestrian walkways which must also be kept free at all times, implementation of speed breakers and construction of Bumps near schools to compel drivers to reduce their speeds.
