By ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA — WORRIED by the increasing involvement of Toyota Hiace buses in road accidents, the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has written the manufacturing company drawing its attention to the menace,  with a view to addressing the problem.

Corps Marshall, FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka, who disclosed this at a sensitisation programme on speed limiting device organized by the commission for owners of transport companies in Umuahia, Abia State.

He lamented that the development had claimed the lives of 1,437 persons and injured 6,831 in the past seven months.

He said the letter written to the managing director of Toyota also recommended that drivers and owners of Toyota Hiace buses be advised to install speed limit devices in their vehicles and obey stipulated speed limits on Nigerian roads.

Represented by Enugu Zonal Commander, Mr. Chike Nwaka,  Chidoka lamented that speed violation accounted for about 65 per cent of the causative factors of road crashes and fatalities in the country.

He said the letter to Toyota was prompted by discovery that buses from the company were recalled in Australia between 1990 and 2010 due to incessant involvement in fire incidences during crashes.