Vehicular breakdowns on Lagos roads have increased by over 200 per cent, the State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) General Manager Musa Olawale has said.
Olawale, who spoke yesterday in Lagos, noted that incessant breakdowns, which constitute about 70 per cent of traffic gridlocks, were making traffic management tasking for the agency.
According to him, the agency, which has 41 zones across the state, takes between 25 and 30 articulated vehicles off the road everyday as a result of breakdowns or accidents.
The LASTMA chief blamed the upsurge in the number of vehicle breakdowns to the volume of articulate vehicles entering the state daily, to lift petroleum products, or containerised vehicles, which freight cargoes out of the ports.
He said breakdowns often ground movements, adding: “It can take you five hours to take a broken-down tanker out of the road and the backlog it could cause could also be there for another five hours. This means motorists and commuters can be inside traffic for about 10 hours just because of a vehicle breakdown.”
Olawale said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s recent directive to have articulated vehicles checked is among measures to check increasing breakdowns so that only healthy vehicles ply the state roads, especially in Apapa.
The LASTMA chief said the breakdowns, which often involve articulated vehicles and petrol tankers, posed more challenge because of the peculiarity of their inflammable cargo.
He said traffic would be better managed if Lagos residents dropped their hostility to LASTMA officials.
“Lagosians must stop their hostility towards LASTMA. They must see that to get traffic moving, we have to work together. LASTMA requires the partnership with the people, if we must succeed in our assignment of making the roads safer and traffic more convenient for the people,” Olawale said.
According to him, the hostility often degenerates into violence against the agency’s officials, many of who had been assaulted in the course of carrying out their legitimate duties.
He said two years ago, one LASTMA official was killed at Apapa for trying to redirect traffic gridlock, adding that such fatal encounters must be curbed in the interest of peace.
Pleading for greater understanding from the motoring public, Olawale said: “LASTMA officials are servants of the people. They are employed by the government and they make the roads work effectively in the interest of everyone.”
The LASTMA chief said the agency was worried that some unscrupulous drivers (commercial and private) were fond of abducting its officers, beating and abandoning them in desolate places.
“Every week, we receive reports in our situation room of our officials abducted by culprits in the course of enforcing traffic regulations. Such officials are beaten mercilessly before being released; or in some cases, the officials escape before more harm could come their way,” Olawale said.
He disclosed that the agency has been organising regular training and retraining of its workforce in order to drive down a re-orientation needed for better civil engagement needed to promote good civil relationship with motorists.
Olawale added that the agency had tried stopping physical enforcement of traffic offences but are stalled because of lack of data. He therefore called for the understanding of the public, saying that rather than taking the law into their hands, erring officials should be reported to the agency for appropriate disciplinary actions.
“LASTMA is being paid from their taxes. Government employed these officials to work in their interest to keep the roads free, so they should cooperate with us. We are there for them to ensure that they have free flow of traffic. Whatever issues they have, they should take it up with us and not our officers on the road. If our officers misbehave let them take it up with us, we have machinery in place to take up any offences and mete out the appropriate punishment to any officer. Let them cooperate with LASTMA to ensure that our services are seamless,” he said. - The Nation
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