An
investigation by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has blamed Taiwo
Elegede, the driver of the late Minister of State for Labour and
Productivity, James Ocholi, for over speeding.
The
road safety agency also said apart from the driver’s high speed, failure
to use seat belts by the deceased minister and his family members
decreased their chances of survival in the crash.
He added that by theory, the occupants of the front seats received less injuries because they made use of their seat belts.
Mr. Ocholi died alongside his wife and son, on Sunday in an auto crash along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway.
The FRSC investigation also revealed that Mr. Elegede had no valid driver’s licence.The
investigation report was read on Wednesday by the Corps Marshal of
FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, during a valedictory session of the Federal
Executive Council in honour of the late Ocholi at the Council Chambers
of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“There
were 10 persons involved in the accident and 9 were adults. The minister
and his son died on the spot, while his wife died at the hospital. The
driver of the crashed vehicle was moving at excess of the stipulated
speed when he had a tyre burst.
“The
investigation team gathered that the driver of the backup vehicle had
noticed that the minister’s vehicle rear left tyre was under-inflated,
and availability of radio communication deprived him of access to the
minister’s driver,” Mr. Oyeyemi said.
According
to Mr. Oyeyemi, further checks showed that the driver’s details were
not registered on the FRSC data base as a licensed driver.
“There
was no record on the driver’s licence national database of the driver of
the Hon. Minister with the name Taiwo James Elegbede,” he said.
“The Dunlop tyres of the SUV were not expired but were wrongly fixed and could have affected its performance.
“The
situation would have been salvaged if there had been a mode of
communication between the minister’s car and the backup car, as the
latter had noticed the state of the tyres and tried to stop them.
“The
crashed vehicle’s driver was driving too fast and he slammed on his
brake so hard. These two factors materially contributed to the inability
of the driver to maintain control when the left rear tyre burst.
“Skid
marks and grooves found on the westbound shoulder made by the Lexus
LX570 for about 15m and 9.3m respectively before it began somersaulting
severely and the ejection of the minister and his son showed clearly
that the travelling speed of the Lexus LX570 presented unsafe
consequences in the event of certain road risk that may have occurred.
“The
driver must have entered into a panic situation which resulted to his
hard application of brakes and subsequent loss of control that took him
into the bush path.
“The
DOT number of the tyres were inward which cannot easily be read from
outside. This indicates that the orientations of the tyres were not
properly fixed which could adversely affect the performance of the
tyres.
“The
Federal Road Safety Corps Investigation Team (FIT) determines that the
probable cause of the March 6, 2016 fatal crash at KM34 Kaduna -Abuja
expressway near Rijana village, Kaduna State, was the driver’s failure
to maintain directional control of his vehicle when the rear left tyre
burst occurred.
“Severity
of the fatality was increased due to the ejection of the minister and
his son as a result of non-use of rear seat belt,” Mr. Oyeyemi said.
The
corps marshal recommended, among other things, “the certification and
re-certification of convoy drivers at intervals of two years of issuance
of convoy driver’s licence,” he said.
He
therefore called for adherence to traffic rules, repairs of potholes on
highways and also urged Mr. Buhari to lead the campaign on compliance
with speed limits, starting with installation of speed limiting devices in commercial vehicles.
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