THE Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Osita Chidoka has identified low funding, weak institutional framework, poor driver training and testing as major challenges facing safe road transportation in the developing economies of the world.Speaking recently during the Multilateral Development Banks Road Safety Initiative, co-hosted by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank at the World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC, Chidoka also said Nigeria is determined to improve on the post-crash care of victims.He added that FRSC is adequately empowered by law to prosecute any hospital that refuses to treat crash victims.Speaking further, the FRSC boss said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will soon come up with a resolution that would make road safety component an integral part of road contracts.Besides, he explained that the resolve form part of Nigerias commitment to the decade of action on road safety, adding that Nigeria is committed to the decade of action on road safety (2011-2020).Welcoming participants to the Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) initiative, according to a press statement issued by FRSC, the World Bank President, Robert Zoellick stated that 1.3 million people are killed and 50 million people injured in road crashes yearly world wide.This, according to him, has made road safety a major global health issue as losses recorded through road crashes have already surpassed malaria and tuberculosis as global disease burdens.He, therefore, called for concerted global action through systematic multi-sectoral response to the health and economic challenges posed by road crashes.The World Bank president promised continual funding of road safety audit and country road safety capacity assessment while fully encouraging efforts to make safety component an integral part of road projects.In her own contribution, former Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Costa Rica, Karla Gonzalez, urged that efforts should not only be targeted at changing road infrastructure during the decade but deliberate efforts need to be directed at changing the habits and attitudes of stakeholders.She identified the stakeholders as governments, donor agencies, health institutions, multilateral bodies and all road users.The Founding and Executive Director of the Chariots of Destiny Organisation, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Kenya, Casey Marenge, recounted her involvement in a traffic crash about eight years ago.She called for the integration of insurance issues in the focal points of the Decade of Action to address the challenges of prompt compensation for victims of road crashes. She also advocated provision of employments for victims whose challenges have deprived them of their means of livelihood.FRSC explained that the Washington meeting was organised in response to the rising cases of road fatalities occurring in developing countries, adding that it is assuming a major development issue.The FRSC Corps Marshal was accompanied by the Principal Staff Officer in the Corps Marshals Office, Wole Olaniran and the Corps Transport Standardisation Officer, Kayode Olagunju to the meeting in Washington DC, United States of America.
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