• FRSC promises to begin the implementation if it’s speed limiters on the 1st of October, 2016
• What we should all know about the devices before implementation starts.

From October 1st, The Federal Road Safety Corps will start to enforce the use of speed limiters.

The FRSC Corps Marshall confirmed this recently at a public enlightenment forum in Uyo through its Assistant Corps Marshall in charge of Assistant Corps Marshall in charge of Policy, Research and Statistics, Michael Olagunju.

Enforcement of the speed limiters has been in the works for a while now. The Corps Marshall himself, Boboye Olagunju had already reiterated the FRSC’s commitment to implementing the policy with a view to curbing road accidents around the country.

Legislative approval

After some back and forth between Corps and the House of Assembly in May, The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Road Safety Commission finally endorsed the move by the Safety Corps to introduce speed limiting devices on vehicles in the country.

The report returned by the committee revealed that the FRSC acted within the powers conferred on it by the FRSC Act, 2007, in introducing the devices. The powers in reference empowers the Corps to “implement strategies to safeguard lives and property of road users.”

About Speed Limiting devices

The FRSC website reveals that the device when installed in a vehicle would act as a governor that will measure, regulate and control speed of that vehicle. Once installed, the device does not allow the driver to accelerate beyond a stipulated speed limit set by law as programmed in the vehicle.

The speed limiters will not intuitively regulate the vehicle’s speed to match the limits set for all the different roads. It only ensures that the maximum speed programmed for each vehicle cannot be exceeded. The drivers would therefore still have to comply with speed limits set for each road they ply.

The implementation that will begin on the 1st of October will only apply to commercial vehicles and other fleet operators. It is still uncertain whether the private road users will eventually have to use the speed limiters.

Although the FRSC claims that the price of the device is driven by market forces, it was revealed during the legislative debate that a speed limiting device could cost up to NGN36,000.

Right now, there are only 16 approved vendors of speed limiting devices in Nigeria.

No doubt, these speed limiters will go a long way to curb recklessness of commercial road users. There are concerns however. For instance, where there is a pressing need to speed beyond the limits.

We have all heard about the dangers that lie on our inter-state roads; robbers and now even the herdsmen. If a driver cannot speed beyond the limit to try and avert the danger, what the?

The Corps has suggested defensive driving but have the drivers been taught how?

Roqeebah

Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.