By Tobi Aworinde

The Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos State Command, Mr Olusegun Ogungbemide, speaks to TOBI AWORINDE on efforts to reduce gridlock and crashes in the state and the command’s recovery from the destruction that trailed the #EndSARS protests

You were deployed as the Lagos State Sector Commander in May 2020. What was the situation on the ground when you assumed office?

I took over on June 11, 2020, and on assumption, it was the usual gridlock, hustling and bustling in Lagos, which was an indication that I was actually coming to work and not to rest. Less than a week after I took over, the Kara incident happened where three tankers were involved in a crash around midnight and there was an inferno. Two of the tankers were carrying Premium Motor Spirit, while one was carrying gas. We were on that road from midnight till noon, which was 12 hours of non-stop work, carrying out rescue operation. That was what launched me in Lagos. And since then, it’s been from one activity to another because Lagos is synonymous with gridlock. And if you are coming to manage that, you should know that you’re here to work. That was exactly what I met.

The incessant tanker crashes with attendant losses of lives have been narrowed down to human errors, but there are those who insist that the problem is spiritual. What is FRSC’s disposition to these crashes?

I’ve heard about it a lot – spirits creating havoc on that particular spot. If you want to attribute it to some supernatural powers, you will not find a solution to it because you will end up living in a fool’s world. Besides, that spiritual thing must take frequent breaks; maybe there’s a particular reason it comes out to create the crash and goes back, because if actually the devils are there and they don’t sleep, how come they have seasons? Maybe they have a time they want to create the problems after which they leave.

So, I need to be scientific about this. Inasmuch as I believe in the existence of supernatural powers, it cannot be the explanation as regards the Otedola Bridge crashes. The same was said about the Kara Bridge when we had a series of crashes, including the one I told you about and two others consecutively, of which I was fully involved in the rescue operations. I called my team to analyse what was actually causing the crashes on the Kara Bridge and we got to know that it was actually the road – a combination of the terrain, the vehicle and the drivers as well. In terms of terrain, from Berger, the road is very smooth, but getting to Kara, you would come across a rough patch that would lead you to the Long Bridge through OPIC.

Most of those crashes happen in the early hours of the day when visibility is not so good. When a tanker runs through that road, on getting to Kara, the driver brakes suddenly; and because it is a tanker/truck affair at that time of day, the man coming behind sees the one ahead braking suddenly and applies the brakes too. On stopping, he realises that he cannot manage the speed and, because the capacity of the vehicle cannot control the capacity of the load despite the speed, the vehicle collides with the one ahead and the rest is history.

So, I said, ‘How do we solve this problem?’ That means if the driver can operate in such a way that he does not need to stop, there won’t be any reason for another vehicle to run into him. I then pleaded with Julius Berger that manages the road, saying, ‘We know you’ve not got to this part. Please, smoothen this particular spot for us. It’s a slightly hilly part coming from Berger, so if you are able to smoothen it, the vehicle is pushed to a plain and smooth ground, that is, the Long Bridge, such that they would not have any reason to stop.’ And that’s how, to some extent, we were able to manage the traffic at Kara.

What did you find out in the case of the Otedola Bridge?

Coming back to Otedola, you look at the differential elevation coming from kilometre zero – that is, (old) Toll Gate – to Otedola Estate, which slopes down and then goes up. The sharpness of that section is not significant enough to create the crashes that we’re seeing because there are some parts of this country that when you are climbing the hill, you will not see the vehicle coming from the other side, if you have travelled wide in Nigeria.

The Otedola Bridge is not like that. If actually the road is the problem, then all the vehicles should be getting involved in crashes. How come in the last few weeks, we’ve not talked about a crash? The witches are not there again? Has the road terrain disappeared? Something must be wrong. So, the vehicles and the handlers, not the road, are the problem.

My own line of comparison is that the terrain out of Lagos is replicated into Lagos on the other side. It’s the same slope. How come we have less crashes (inwards Lagos)? Witches are not on the other side? When they are coming in, they are not carrying anything, so they move freely as opposed to when they are returning. .

So, they struggle to climb that hill and when they can’t continue, they roll back. And one thing is that most of these tankers don’t have even safety valves that can prevent the spilling of their contents when they fall. So, when they roll back, it is either they run into another vehicle or they fall, and when the content spills, it ignites because PMS is very volatile – with just a little heat, a fire starts.

That was why I was proposing at a time that to reduce the collateral damage, we might need to limit the movement of tankers. Apart from the 2016 daytime crash on Otedola Bridge where close to 19 people and 26 vehicles were burnt, most of the recent crashes happened in the early hours of the day and the casualties were minimal. So, when we talk about tanker crashes, we talk about the condition of the vehicle and the proficiency of the driver. Many of these drivers are not good enough; they are not healthy or fit enough to handle the vehicles that they are even putting on the road. When the driver is sick and the vehicle is sick, what do you expect? And that is problem we are facing at Otedola Bridge.

What are the long-term strategies to completely stop these crashes?

We have adopted what we call Safe to Load Policy. With this, we have our operatives in virtually all the (fuel loading) facilities. Our operatives are there to ensure that before you can be loaded to carry fuel in Lagos, your truck must meet the minimum safety standards. The tyres must be okay, there must be wipers, side mirrors, and functional lighting and braking systems. That is why we have been able to reduce and manage the rate of crashes.

On the long-term strategies, we have the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and the independent oil marketers. I’ve had cause to interact with the two sides and I’ve confirmed that the major marketers operate with new trucks, while the independent marketers operate with fairly-used trucks that are brought into the country. I also confirmed that major marketers’ trucks hardly get involved in crashes, whereas the majority of the crashes recorded involve tankers belonging to the independent marketers.

I also know that the major marketers train their drivers annually, while there is no record that independent markets do the same. I know, in addition, that the major marketers have training schools/ driving schools where they train their drivers for proficiency before they hand over trucks to them. On the other side, it’s the opposite.

If we have tested and confirmed that one party has got it right and Total, for example, could boast that in the last four years, despite the number of trucks it has on the road, it has not recorded a crash, are they not passing through Otedola? Is it not an indication that there is nothing wrong with that road? On all the federal roads in Nigeria, they have been moving for the last four years and there has been no crash.

So, when you look at the other side, why do we have crashes involving these ones? Then we have to replicate what these major marketers are doing for the independent marketers as a long-term strategy to put an end to the frequent crashes, killings of people and destruction of properties. At the end of the day, the gains being made by these downstream business owners are not worth the life of any citizen. Our long-term focus should be to stop any company that is not ready to bring in new vehicles for their business. Anyone who wants to go into a business should be prepared for the demands of that business, rather than jeopardise the lives of people.

Apart from bringing in trucks, marketers should also be able to hire well-trained drivers to handle their trucks. It is not to have a motor boy attached to the driver taking over the steering wheels any day the master is not feeling well. We can’t continue in this manner.

And in terms of enforcement, there should be no mercy. Once people err, they should face the music. But the issues of safety involving trucks and tankers on our roads cannot be left to the FRSC alone. There is a need for collaboration among all stakeholders, including the major marketers, independent marketers, FRSC, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Department of Petroleum Resources and the drivers.

There is also the issue of falling containers, which continue to lead to untimely deaths around the state. How is that being addressed?

When I came to Lagos, the issue of falling containers also came up. The containers were falling on other vehicles and you heard of one or two fatalities that were recorded. One of the saddest was the one involving a mother that lost her daughter, and it generated a lot of reactions from members of the public. The government reacted too and the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, gave my colleagues along this corridor and me, a marching order that any truck with unlatched containers should be arrested. For the first one week, we made close to 800 arrests of trucks that were not latched. They paid the fines and the containers were latched before they were released. It sent an important signal to truck drivers and owners.

We were made to understand that they refused to latch the containers to protect themselves, so that if the container falls, it does not take them down with the truck because the container is insured while their lives are not. The drivers were trying to balance it by saying, ‘Let me save my life because the owner can get his property back,’ not minding the lives that were being lost. With that intervention and message sent across, they started latching their containers. I can tell you that almost on a daily basis, containers continue to fall due to the bad roads, but there are no outcries because nobody was killed. With the latch on, when vehicles fall, the containers will be in place and when the rescue operatives come, they lift it up and rescue the driver. This is unlike the before when the container is thrown onto other vehicles.

The Lagos Command of the FRSC suffered destruction in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests at the hands of vandals. Have you been able to ascertain the extent of the damage?

For a small command like ours, it was a huge loss. We lost about 13 vehicles. The offices were vandalised; the generator that feeds the entire federation for Number Plates is here, it was burnt. Three of my component commands had their vehicles burnt and their offices vandalised. I’ve collated all that we lost and sent the list to the headquarters for proper documentation. But the extent of the damage was too much for a command like ours that is managing its facilities; it really affected us. But we thank God for the intervention of the corps marshal, with the support of the Federal Government. You know the nature of our work; even on the day of the incident, people called at night that there was a crash and we should come and assist. Meanwhile, all our vehicles had been burnt. So, you can imagine the number of people that would be affected. That was why emergency vehicles were released to us. We don’t have enough still, but at least we can return to the road and continue to do the job that we are mandated to do.

How easily were you able to bounce back from the incident, especially with regard to the Number Plate production?

So far, there have been palliative measures put in place by the headquarters. The capacity we were operating at before the #EndSARS protests did not return immediately. But now we have a replacement generator about to be installed. That is to tell you that the headquarters was so concerned because they knew the implication of what happened. But in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests, we have just been managing, in order to ensure that is no gap in service rendering and but God has been helping us.

Originally published at PUNCH