FRSC refers 2,143 drivers to hospitals for mental evaluation

FRSC Boss, Boboye Oyeyemi

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, said on Thursday that it had referred 2,143 drivers to a specialist hospital to check their mental status in the last three months.

In an effort to curb reckless driving on the highways, the commission also revealed that the motorists were among 2,360 arrested for various traffic violations in Abuja as part of its Operation Cobra, an initiative for the arrest and prosecution of motorists found to have violated traffic laws.

Naija News gathered that the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, disclosed this in Lagos on Thursday at a press briefing to mark the beginning of the 10th ‘Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign’ co-sponsored by the Nigerian Brewery Plc to improve road safety nationwide.

Oyeyemi, represented by the Corps’ Public Education Officer, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, also said between February 1, 2017 and September 20, 2017, 66,774 vehicles were found to have speed-limiting devices out of 165,040 commercial vehicles stopped by the FRSC patrol teams for routine checks, translating to 40.5 per cent compliance.

The Corps Marshal said the result of the mental test will enable the FRSC to take appropriate action in accordance with law.

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According to him, traffic offenders were stopped and “issued referral notes to visit designated hospitals for psychological evaluation to ascertain their mental health status.”

“As an intelligence-driven government agency, corps’ findings at the early part of the year identified some road vices such as traffic light violation, route violation, use of phone while driving and reckless driving as the most prevalent among other causative factors of road crashes,” Oyeyemi said.

He added that drivers who did not comply with the directive of the federal government to the corps to begin a nationwide advisory enforcement of the speed- limiting device installation since October 1, 2016, were not fined but advised to only install the device.

In a speech delivered by the Corporate Affairs Adviser of the Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Kufre Ekanem, said the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign’ organised to enlighten drivers in various cities, media messages with free medical checks and eye test for motorists.

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