30% of truck drivers have vision problems – FRSC

The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, has said that about 30 per cent of drivers of articulated vehicles have vision problems and can hardly see well at night.

He said this was the outcome of a recent research conducted by the corps following frequent road accidents involving trailers/tankers leading to loss of lives.

Oyeyemi who also lamented that the FRSC had lost 74 of its officials as a result to reckless acts of some drivers in the last 18 months, spoke on ‘Safety as an imperative for road cargo transportation’ at the Haulage and Logistics Magazine Annual Conference and Exhibition in Lagos.

According to him, “We conducted a vision test on the highway and motor parks and we observed that 30 per cent of the articulated vehicle drivers had vision problems and that is also contributing to the crashes.

“We discovered during the interview session that they think if they use glasses, they will lose their jobs. Employers should be training their drivers and encouraging them to use glasses to enhance their driving skills.”

He expressed worry about the high rate of accidents involving tankers/trailers, attributing about 85 per cent of the road crashed to human errors.

Oyeyemi said, “Crashes involving articulated vehicles are much more distressing because of the higher rate in fatality and over all negative multiplier economic effects, asides environmental pollution.”

Specifically, he said the crashes were usually due to non-adherence to road traffic safety practices; inadequate driver’s training/certification and retraining leading to drivers’ errors; inadequate provision of tanker/trailers parks across the country; non adherence to safe laden/haulage practices /standards; non-functional weighbridges to assist in enforcement of axle-load compliance, including overload with sundry goods; aging trucks and lack of fleet renewal programmes; alteration of original design value of truck heads and/or trailer and poor state of the nation’s roads.

He, however, said the corps was determined fully enforced standards before and during loading as well as on transit and off-loading of cargoes.

“Fleet Operators should ensure the mandatory Use of Inflammable signs and retro-reflective tapes on all trucks to enhance visibility. All trucks with flammable contents must comply with the Agreement for Dangerous Roads (ADR) standards and fix necessary signs on trucks for recognition,” the corps marshal said.

He also advised truck owners to consider investing in on-board cameras and satellite tracking to monitor the behaviour of their drivers.