The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Sector Command said on Monday that drivers of articulated vehicles having goods, passengers and animals crammed together would be prosecuted promptly.
The Sector Commander of FRSC in Lagos, Mr Patrick Davou, said this during a special operation and clampdown on such articulated vehicles in the state.
He said that the clampdown also extended to articulated vehicles carrying fuel in jerry cans, vowing that all those apprehended would face a mobile court.
Davou reiterated that it was an offence to cram passengers and animals in vehicles.
“On today’s operation, we have apprehended some of the trucks with passengers and goods on top of their vehicles and they will be tried in a mobile court.
“We are going to enforce this, and this is a nationwide campaign by the FRSC; we have been mandated to apprehend all drivers of articulated vehicle found breaking the law.
“We have done a lot of advocacy visits and enlightenment and now it is the enforcement stage,” he said.
The FRSC Lagos boss also informed truck owners that the clampdown on drivers found wanting would be continuous.
He said that lives were being lost as a result of bad attitude and behaviour of errant drivers.
“We are calling on all motorists, especially truck drivers, to desist from such behaviour.
“We are also campaigning against people carrying fuel in jerry cans in their vehicles.
“Any vehicle seen with such will be stopped and the driver asked to empty the fuel inside its tank.
“If the tank cannot take in the fuel, the driver will find a means to dispose of it.
“The official of FRSC will not allow him to go with the fuel in the jerry can.
“This exercise is continuous; the motoring public will be seeing us more often, having a mobile court on these issues and mostly on interstate buses,” he said.
Davou said that the FRSC, as the lead agency for traffic management and control, could not fold its hands and see people do things that could result in loss of lives.
“These trucks caught now, the passengers on top will be dropped.
“They will not continue the journey with the truck and the driver of the vehicle will be charged at the mobile court.
“This campaign started long before now, recently we brought many of them to the office and they were booked.
“This time, they will be sent to the mobile court so that people will know that the enforcement has started in earnest; there is no going back,” he said.
Davou said that last week, the FRSC team visited a locality where they met truck drivers and community leaders.
He said the team learnt that it was not the drivers that put the passengers on top the trucks but people that had hired them, in order to cut cost.
“We want this message to get to the hirers and owners of these trucks, and they should insist that such overloading should stop,” he said.