The Federal Road Safety Corps has said that it will commence the
enforcement of psychiatric test on traffic law offenders in the country
with effect from July 1, 2017.
The Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye
Oyeyemi, stated this at the opening of a five-day training programme for
22 FRSC officials on traffic safety for non-motorised transportation in
Abuja on Monday.
corps to change the behaviour of motorists through education and enforcement.
Oyeyemi
said, “We are worried about the continuous use of phone while driving,
traffic light
violations, route violations and dangerous driving.
“We
have invited the commanding officers for a strategic session on Friday.
We will give them full directives to resume the referral of all these
classes of offenders to various government hospitals for check of their
mental state.
“I think it is an act of irresponsibility for
somebody to be driving and be using phone or for a traffic light to stop
you and you are jumping the line.
“It means something is wrong
with your mental faculty. So, there is a need to examine this, to really
check whether you are fit to drive, whether you have the mental
capability to drive or not.
“The offender will bear the cost. When they confirm that he is fit, then he will go for retraining programme and pay the fine.”
He
argued that the purpose of the mental examination for offenders was
not to generate revenue but to engender attitudinal change.
“Fine
is not the issue; the issue is we need a positive attitudinal change by
Nigerians. We cannot continue to be having fatal crashes due to traffic
light violations, people jumping the traffic lights, I think it is
crass irresponsibility,” the Corps Marshal stated.
He stated that the FRSC was empowered by its enabling Act to undertake the proposed psychiatric examination.
Source: Punch
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