The Federal Road Safety Corps has set up a Joint Task Force to catch and punish truck drivers who are transporting people.
The purpose was to stop the increasing number of traffic violations caused by using trucks to transport passengers.
The Joint Task Force includes the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, State Traffic Management Agencies, and members of the Corps.
Other people included in the Task Force are representatives of different transportation groups.
A traffic accident happened on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway on Monday night, which led to the death of 10 people.
The accident, involving a DAF Trailer, happened because of excessive speed, overloading, and tiredness.
According to FRSC spokesperson Jonas Agwu, the JTF was inaugurated in phases, starting with the team on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway on Saturday at Kakau Toll Gate, Kaduna State.
The Corps Marshal FRSC, Dauda Biu, stressed the important role of the JTF.
Biu, represented by the Assistant Corps Marshal, Federal Operations, Zubairu Mato, said, “In recent months, the highways have seen incidents of road crashes involving trailers carrying goods, animals, and people.
“In many of these crashes, innocent people sitting on top of goods in such vehicles were killed, and the cargo being transported also got extensively damaged.
“To change this bad trend, the JTF members were told to carry out special patrols and mobile court operations on the designated route. They were also instructed to promptly prosecute those caught breaking the law.”
The initiative will be carried out across major routes nationwide.
As a result, trailer owners were warned to caution their drivers against this traffic violation as the corps would not forgive anyone caught doing it.
Additionally, a fatal crash occurred on Saturday in Rinji, Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The crash involved a Mercedes Benz with registration number AK808AA and a Volkswagen Opel Vectra also with registration number TFB675RC.
Out of the eight individuals in the vehicles, four victims, including one woman and three men, were killed while the remaining 4 victims survived the crash with various injuries.
The FRSC rescue team found N1,532,100 that belonged to the victims.
