The Governor of Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has urged commercial motor drivers to desist from taking alcohol, drugs or other related substance before going behind the wheel, stressing that evidence abound that road traffic accidents are influenced and precipitated by substance abuse, which impair driver’s ability to manage and manipulate a vehicle well.
Fashola, who stated this on Thursday at the New Garage Motor Park, Bariga during a Motor Park Health and Safety awareness campaign organized by the state’s Ministries of Health and Transportation in partnership with Guinness Nigeria Plc, noted that the programme is an initiative of his administration to raise awareness about responsible consumption of alcohol and initiate change in attitude amongst motor park drivers.
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, he said: “The aim of the initiative is to reduce road traffic accidents, thereby ensuring the safety of the driver, passenger and other road users.
“The campaign is also aimed at increasing awareness about mental health and what can be done not only to prevent it but also to cure it.
“It is part of the composite health care plan for the sustainability of our people as well as improving their lives expectancy rate.”
Fashola explained that since inception of the campaign in 2011, no fewer than 2,500 public transportation and commercial motor drivers have been screened for blood alcohol content, substance abuse, hypertension and diabetes as well as health education and enlightenment.
He said: “The campaign has been taken to Ojota, Iyana Ipaja and Oyingbo motor parks and the screening team included medical doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians, Lagos State Traffic Management Agency and Lagos State Ambulance Service officials and administrative workers.”
He explained that 884 motor drivers were screened at Ojota Motor Park, adding that 239 of them, representing 27 per cent of those screened, came up with hypertension; while 86 persons, representing 10 per cent of those screened, were found to be diabetic; 60 drivers, representing seven per cent, tested positive to substance abuse; and 287, representing 32 per cent of those screened, had excessive blood alcohol level.
He added: “At the Oyingbo motor park campaign, 988 people were screened while 363, or 37 per cent of the people screened were hypertensive, 156 or 16 per cent had diabetes, 59 or six per cent tested positive to cocaine or marijuana, and 494 or 50 per cent tested positive to the breatherlyzer.
“While at the campaign at Iyana Ipaja Motor Park, 1,025 people were screened and 162 people or 16 per cent had hypertension, 71 people or seven per cent had diabetes, 103 or 10 per cent tested positive to cocaine or marijuana and 215 or 21 per cent had excessive alcohol in their blood system.”
The governor added that the latest campaign at the New Garage Motor Park, Bariga, which started on September 3, 2013, has been undertaking tests for high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer screening and providing counseling and guidance for all the park operators, including drivers in the park.
He said: “Let us resolve today that we will stop taking a gamble with our lives.
“Every time you cross the highway, every time you drink Alomo and Paraga, every time you get behind the steering wheels with drugs in your system, it is like putting a loaded gun to one’s head and wondering if it can kill or not.
“It is a huge risk to take and we should stop taking that risk.”
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, had stated that the Lagos State Government decided to embark on the motor park sensitization campaign because human developmental index had shown that the numbers of lives that are lost in a year are not necessarily lost to natural illnesses alone but to violence, road accidents and other needless and avoidable causes of death.
Idris said: “This explains why the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation and in partnership with Guinness Nigeria Plc put together this initiative.
“Again, that is why the importance of this motor park health and safety awareness campaign cannot be over emphasized.”
He added that no fewer than 955 commercial drivers have benefitted from hypertension and diabetes screening, eye screening, urine drug test, mental counseling and alcohol content test, using breatherlyzers, at the ongoing motor park health and safety awareness campaign at the New Garage Motor Park, Bariga.
He added: “288 people were screened for hypertension and diabetes, 194 drivers had their eyes screened, 217 people benefitted from urine test, 220 drivers were screened for alcohol content level using breatherlyzers and 36 people benefitted from the one-on-one mental health counseling.”
The Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, urge drivers to dislodge drug and alcohol hawkers from their parks and also cautioned against substance and alcohol abuse, adding that abuse of these controlled drugs is responsible for the high rate of road traffic accident.
Opeifa noted that the Drivers’ Institutes located in Epe, Ikorodu, Oshodi, Ikeja and Lagos Island, was built to train motorists, both private and public, about techniques, driving methods and driving habits.
He said the state government will from October 1, 2013 commence the enforcement of a recent policy to accredit all professional and commercial motor drivers, stressing that with this, no commercial driver without certification of the Drivers Institute can operate in the state.
The Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Seni Adetu, who was represented by the Head, Sustainability and Responsibility Unit, noted that Guinness is keenly interested in the motor park health and safety awareness campaign because it seeks to inculcate the habit of responsible drinking into commercial drivers, which brings with it attendant benefits to the larger society.
Adetu said: “The major objective of the motor park health programme is to raise awareness about the dangers of irresponsible alcohol consumption and to induce a change in the attitudes of commercial motorists to drink-driving.”
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