SPDC Moves to End Road Fatalities, Donates
The Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC), yesterday said it was moved by the plight of road accident victims who are usually trapped in vehicles during several mishaps which happen on Nigerian Roads on a daily basis.
Officials of the oil giant, who donated several units of Crash Victims Extraction Equipment to the Bayelsa Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), said the company had observed that many road accident victims lose their lives because of the inability of security officials to get them out of mangled vehicles.
Kisi Obomanu, the company’s head of Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) Maturation, who represented Gloria Udo, Manager Social Investments, told journalists during the event that as a company noted for safety worldwide, Shell was interested in saving the lives lost on Nigerian roads.
“Be it industrial safety, domestic safety or even road safety, anything that is synonymous with safety, Shell will be part of it. This is part of our external relations with our external stakeholders. We are taking the knowledge and expertise we have in safety and extending it to the general public.
“Our desire is not just that the Shell worker should return home after work, the idea is for the general public to go about their business in a safe manner so that they can always return to their loved ones at the next of work,” Obomanu said.
He said the equipment would extract or extricate the accident victims in seconds from any crashed vehicle and promised that the company would also undertake the training of road safety officials on how to use the equipment.
The Bayelsa state Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Ikechukwu Igwe, while accepting the donations said the presentation was timely as the ember months, when the roads become very busy, were already here.
“This is a very good time to donate these equipment. Vehicular movement around this time is very high. This will help in no small measure to ensure that our plan for zero accident on our roads succeed".