Ben Ezechime, Enugu
No fewer than 100 Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) paramedics and patrol operatives in South-East and South-South have been trained on life-saving rescue to reduce fatality on the roads in the country.
Declaring the two-day capacity-building training open in Enugu on Wednesday, the FSRC Corps Marshal, Dauda Biu, noted that the training would be intensive and with more practical sessions in order to retool knowledge and zeal of personnel in life-saving rescue operations.
Biu noted that the training is focused on strengthen the capacity of FRSC paramedics and operational personnel/officers towards meeting the Goals of the United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, in saving the lives of crash victims on Nigerian roads.
The corps marshal, represented by the Zonal Commanding Officer in-charge of South-East, Assistant Corp Marshal, Isaac Ameh, challenged the participants on keying into the training and use same knowledge practically in their various commands and units in the zones.
“We are charging the participants to take the training seriously and put to practice all they have learnt within this yuletide period and beyond as the corps expect to see renewed zeal to attend to rescue and doing it professionally.
“The Corps is grateful to Ford Foundation for supporting FRSC in this important training, which will involve all the units and commands within the zones in the country,” he said.
According to him, the Corps is also looking at stepping down this training to various sector commands, unit commands, outposts and Zebras through the participants to ensure very personnel gets the modern and ideal knowledge of attending to accident victims rescue whenever it occurs.
Speaking, the Corps Project Implementation Officer, Assistant Corps Marshal Clement Oladele, said that the overall goal of this project was to drastically reduce the number of casualties in emergency handling through prompt and efficient rescue operations.
“It is therefore our expectation to the motoring public that some of the key outcomes from this training would be the drastic reduction in the number of deaths arising from road traffic crashes; and reduction in the number of casualties involving women and children.
“The capacity-building will also deepen the professional capacity of FRSC paramedics and operational personnel in emergency rescue operations and highway trauma handling.
“It is also expected that other outcomes of the training would be to improve the public perception of the Corps activities as well as raise public awareness on the responsibilities of the FRSC in First Aid and trauma management.
“And accordingly, make members of the motoring public demand for commensurate trauma handling services from the Corps,” he said.
Oladele noted that in line with the FRSC’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, the Corps had in selecting those to be trained, demonstrated consciousness on gender balancing in making the selection.
According to him, the female gender accounts for about 35 per cent of those selected for this training country-wide. This way, road traffic crashes involving female and children victims, would be more professionally handled by these trained female FRSC officers.
Uloma Obike, Special Assistant to the Regional Director, Ford Foundation, West Africa, noted that the transport sector opens new areas of economic activities, increases agricultural production and marketing and reduces poverty by improving the welfare of road users.
“However, Nigeria has a huge road safety challenge and a high fatality rate; road traffic accidents and deaths remain at a record high and many of these deaths and injuries are preventable with first aid if accident victims are treated on time by skilled first responders.
“Ford Foundation value the work FRSC do, and we recognise that the work cannot be done by the government agencies alone, therefore we did not hesitate to support this capacity-building initiative to improve the quality of first responses in emergencies,” she said.
It would be recalled that the Ford Foundation, a reputable international NGO, graciously extended the sum of One Hundred Thousand US Dollars ($100,000) for the capacity-building training, which would cover FRSC paramedics and operational officers across the country.
