FRSC: Obeying traffic light signs saves lives, curtails accidents

Eniola Adepoju

The Public Education Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos Sector Command, Olabisi Sonusi, has urged Nigerians, especially those in Lagos State to ensure they obey the traffic light signs, which are placed at strategic locations in the metropolis.

According to Sonusi, if people cultivate the habit of obeying traffic light signs, there would be fewer accidents on the roads and less deaths caused by motor accidents.

She explained that people do not often obey the traffic light signs because of impatience, leading to them breaking the traffic light signs.

Sonusi, whose role is to educate the motoring public on the use of the roads, said: “The traffic light signs are part of the road furniture, which help people to navigate properly. It is not meant for motorists alone, but also for pedestrians, so that they wouldn’t be crushed while crossing the roads.”

Sonusi further stated: “Failure to obey the traffic signal can lead to lots of traffic and accidents within the environment. People are still not obeying these lights adequately. There is also traffic sometimes, which causes lots of traffic within the environment where there are traffic lights. When people don’t obey traffic lights, there will not be orderliness.  That’s why the government always ensured that there is traffic official to assist in passing motorists.”

She explained that the traffic light signs help in the free flow of vehicles, checks accidents from not occurring.

She said: “When the yellow light comes up, it means a driver should be ready, while green is telling you to move, but not automatically. You have to wait and make sure the road is free. If you don’t consider that, then crashes will occur.”

Sonusi further explained that maintaining free flow of traffic in a mega city like Lagos wouldn’t have been easy, but for the assistance and support of the state government. According to her, every month, FRSC carry out road audits, whereby they look for major challenges and look for areas for state government’s interventions.

“When we put that together in a report, we then send it to the appropriate authority, which is the federal ministry of works, and any other agencies that are responsible for fixing such defects, that had been noticed and we always get the feedback,” said Sonusi.