As from July 1, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)
will start conducting psychiatric tests for traffic law
offenders in the country.
Boboye Oyeyemi, the corps marshal, made this known
on Monday at the opening of a five-day training
programme for FRSC officials on traffic safety for non-
motorised transportation in Abuja.
Oyeyemi said the FRSC was empowered by its enabling
Act to carry out the proposed psychiatric examination.
A statement was released to this effect by Bisi
Kazeem, the FRSC corps public education officer.
“We are worried about the continuous use of phone
while driving, traffic light violations, route violations
and dangerous driving,” the statement quoted Oyeyemi
as saying.
“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.”
“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.”
TheCable
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