Shell Petroleum Development Company has partnered the Bayelsa State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps on the rescue of victims trapped in car wreckage after road accidents.
The company donated many units of Crash Victims Extraction Equipment to the state command of the FRSC for use to extricate or extract victims from crashed vehicles.
The company observed on Saturday that many road accident victims lose their lives because of the inability of security and safety officials to get them out of mangled vehicles.
The Manager, Social Investments, SPDC, Gloria Udo, said that as a company noted for safety worldwide, Shell was interested in saving the lives of road accident victims.
Udo, who was represented by the Head of Global Memorandum of Understanding Maturation, Kisi Obomanu, said, “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 close of work.”
She said the equipment would extract or extricate the accident victims in seconds from any crashed vehicle, promising that Shell would also undertake the training of road safety officials on how to use the equipment.
The Sector Commander, FRSC, Bayelsa State Command, Mr. Ikechukwu Igwe, while accepting the donation, said the presentation was timely as the ‘ember’ months, when the roads become very busy, are already here.
“This is a very good time to donate this 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 succeeds,” Igwe stated.
The FRSC boss gave instances when road safety officials had had to use cutlasses to attempt to cut mangled cars open to rescue accident victims, noting that in the process the lives of victims were endangered because of time wastage.
Also present during the event were representatives of the police, fire service, federal and state ministry of works, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps as well as professional drivers and their employers.
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