Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has urged South-East governors to support its operations with rescue ambulances to improve timing and capacity to respond to emergencies.
The Zonal Commanding Officer (ZCO) of FRSC, Mr Anthony Oko, made the call while speaking with newsmen in Enugu.
Oko, who is an Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM), noted that there was the need to shorten response time and improve capacity during rescue emergency interventions on the roads with more ambulances placed in strategic locations on the highways.
According to him, this initiative of having ambulances stationed at locations on major highways for rescue interventions is already functional and practised in Lagos and Osun states and have reduced post road crash deaths.
Oko, who supervises FRSC Sector Commands in Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states, said that the initiative involved having mini fire fighting station, a team of security personnel and extricating machines attached to the rescue emergency ambulance spot.
“It has been proven that ambulance rescue and first aid given to a road accident victim between five and 10 minutes of crash makes great impact to ensure the victim’s survival.
“It has become necessary to adopt the on-the-road spot ambulance emergency rescue initiative; which is well-equiped and fashioned to attend to emergency rescues.
“The governors should support the FRSC in promoting this laudable initiative as it is mostly the residents of the state where these roads run usually use them for daily routine and periodic travels,” he said.
The ZCO also noted that close collaboration with sister security agencies had helped to improve the work and visibility of FRSC in the zone notwithstanding security challenge.
“With current collaboration of sister security agencies, we are getting better results and seamless positive outcomes in safety and protection of Nigerians on our roads.
“We appreciate the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigeria Police, NSCDC, DSS, Vehicle Inspection Offices, both Federal and state fire services in the zone among others,” he said.
