FRSC tasks petrol tanker drivers to adhere to safety regulations

Petrol tanker drivers have been advised to adhere to safety regulations during loading and on transit.

The Lagos State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), on Friday, gave this advice during a sanitisation workshop to mark the three years anniversary of “Safe-to-load FRSC intervention programme”.

Mr Hyginus Omeje, the Sector Commander said that Safe-to-load was instituted to curb road crashes and tanker fire outbreaks, halt loss of lives, economic waste and its negative impacts on the environment.

Omeje, who expressed worry on the recent tanker fire-outbreaks in the country that claimed lives and property, said that the event would afford them the opportunity to review the programme.

According to him, safety is an all-encompassing thing, involving the depot owners, managers, safety officers and the drivers in the chain of petroleum product distribution and transportation.

“We started posting our officers to depots to assist the owners and their managers to adhere to regulations with the fire outbreaks reoccurring at alarming rates.

“The truck checklist, which we issued to depots, is a comprehensive safety template that if religiously followed by the operators, will save us from a lot of road crashes and fire incidents.

“Our previous review of the safe-to-load initiative, which began in 2015, has shown a progressive trend, as tanker fire outbreaks and tanker induced road crashes were reduced in 2016 and 2017,” Omeje said.

He said that the command wished to use the event to remind the drivers and the depot owners to adhere to the provisions of the truck and depot checklist.

Mr Adebayo Habib, the spokesman of the operators, called on the command to take the campaign to the various depots as most infractions started from the depots.

Habib pledged on behalf of the tanker owners to ensure that every depot would employ the services of professional Health Safety Environment (HSE) officers to ensure checks at depots.