By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
The Federal Government is considering prosecuting Mr. Taiwo Elegbede, driver of the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. James Ocholi for over-speeding and not possessing a driver’s license, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Babachir said yesterday.
The planned prosecution of the driver has put to rest speculations that he also lost his life in the accident.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, Babachir said the driver would be prosecuted following his indictment in a report presented to the council by the Federal Road Safety Commission.
The FRSC had in a report to the council blamed the driver for the accident that killed the minister and members of his family for over-speeding and driving without license.
FRSC Corps Marshall, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, who presented the report to the council at a meeting held at the State House in Abuja, however said the decision by the minister and his family members not to use seat belts contributed to their death.
The report reads in part: “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 non availability of radio communication deprived him of access to the minister’s 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. 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 stressed the need for certification and re-certification of convoy drivers at intervals of two years of issuance of convoy driver’s license.
He also called for adherence to traffic rules, repairs of potholes on highways and the need for the federal government to lead the campaign on compliance with speed limits, starting with installation of speed limiting devices in commercial vehicles.
