Only VIO has the authority to look into and report accidents - Official

he only organization with the legal authority to provide accident reports, according to Mr. Akak Eyo, Head of Operations, Motor Vehicle Administration, Vehicle Inspection Office, (VIO) Cross River Command, is the agency.

Eyo revealed the information to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Calabar in response to the sister agency' overlapped duties in the field of road traffic.

The director of operation explained that the Federal Road Safety (FRSC) officers are in charge of cleaning the road and transporting injured people to hospitals or cemeteries while the traffic section of the Nigerian Police Force arrives at the scene of the accident.

As most VIO officials were engineers, he said that investigating accidents and determining their causes was their line of work.

After everything has been completed, "police officers who know their jobs in the traffic unit will write a letter to the VIO seeking an accident inspection and report because it is their function.''

Eyo continued by stating that there were not many accidents on the roads in Cross River and that his advice to motorists, particularly commercial bus and taxi drivers, was to drive less nervously and carelessly.

He claims that vehicles that stop in the middle of the road and in prohibited locations to pick up and drop off passengers merely to outsmart other motorists generate congestion and increase the risk of accidents.

He claimed that this was the reason the state's agency, represented by its Director of Road Transport Services, Mr. Paul Bepeh, visited parks, marketplaces, and places of worship to emphasize the theme for 2023, "Safety First, Drive to Survive."

In addition to having a properly registered vehicle and a current driver's license, he advised all drivers should have a first aid kit and four liters of water in their boot to prepare for any roadside emergencies and perhaps save lives.

He claimed that one difficulty they had was that Nigerians viewed VIO as their enemy and became irate when they were signaled down.

All that is required of you is that you pause and allow yourself to be examined, which is for both your own good and the good of society.

"When you are cleared, you move on, but if you are cautioned for a misdemeanor, it is not because the agency hates you," he said.