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.
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,” Oyeyemi
said.
According to 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,” 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 Buhari to lead the
campaign on compliance with speed limits, starting with
installation of speed limiting devices in commercial vehicles.
Premium times reportage.
