The last quarter of every year, popu­larly referred to as “Ember” months - begin­ning from September 1 to December 31, is usually characterized with many activities to climax the end of every year.
The period is believed to be that of stock-taking for the year as workers, businessmen, and the gen­eral public are engaged in wrap up activities to end the year.
Moreso, its a period which climax the yearly celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. That is, Chris­mas (for the Christian faithful worldwide).
This scenario, naturally heighten human and ve­hicular traffic as the citi­zenry rush over activities to meet up with the Yule­tide festivities.
The road users, especial­ly commercial drivers who take undue advantage of such period to make for­tunes out of the rush pe­riod, embark on reckless driving at the expense of innocent passengers.
And in most cases, these drivers are involved in avoidable ghastly road ac­cidents
And apparently to mini­mize these road crashes as Christmas approaches, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Cross River state wing, a couple of days ago, flagged off its 2016 joint mega rally in Cala­bar metropolis amidst fan­fare. The aim is to sensitize members of the public on the safety guide put togeth­er by the agency as Christ­mas approaches.
The rally as well as pro­cession, which attracted several stakeholders in the transport and security sectors, expectedly caused traffic tie-up along the ev­er-busy Murtala Moham­med highway and Calabar road,
In an address at the oc­casion, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, urged motor­ists, especially commercial drivers to always observe traffic rules and regulations while driving.
He told the audience that the rally was a public enlightenment campaign aimed at persuading driv­ers to comply with all pre­scribed road safety regula­tions during and after the “Ember’’ months in order to avoid road crashes.
Represented by the Zonal Commanding Of­ficer, RS6, Port Harcourt, ACM Jonas Agwu, Boboye expressed optimism that the awareness campaign will go a long way to help checkmate reckless driving on the highways.
“Public enlightenment is one of the veritable instru­ments the FRSC has always used to achieve compliance with traffic rules and regu­lations.
It was deliberately de­signed by the corps to pro­ceed and compliment en­forcement in all road safety programmes aimed at en­suring safer road environ­ment through persuasion,” he stated.
Boboye said he was pleased to be part of this initiative which is aimed at creating massive public awareness on road safety, especially at this period of heightened traffic move­ment across the country.
The corps marshal ap­pealed to motorists, espe­cially commercial drivers to install speed limiter de­vice in their vehicles, re­minding them that aggres­sive enforcement on the new policy will commence on January 1, 2017.
Dignitaries at the occa­sion include the represen­tative of Cross River state Deputy Governor, Prof Ivara Esu, the Command­er, 13 Brigade, Brig. Gen. Bulama Biu, among other security chiefs in the state.