By Peter Okutu

ABAKALIKI– About 600 drivers from different transport companies as well as commercial motorcyclists in Ebonyi State have been educated on the dangers associated with driving while drunk.

The Ebonyi State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Sunday Iyamah who made this known in Abakaliki, the state capital, explained that alcoholic intake by drivers was one of the major causes of auto accidents in the country.

•The Ebonyi State Sector Command, FRSC, Mr. Sunday Inyima, giving a keynote speech during the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ campaign of the FRSC and flagging off of the 2016 Ember Months campaign at Peace Mass Transit Park, Abakaliki.

Iyamah spoke on the occasion of the Don’t Drink and Drive as well as the campaign flagging off of  2016 Ember Months campaign in collaboration with Nigeria Breweries Plc at the Peace Mass Transit Park, Abakaliki.

According to him, “alcohol can increase crash risk even at a relatively low blood or breath  alcohol concentration as victims are prone to over-confidence, poor judgment of distances, decrease in drivers reaction time as well as decreased sharpness of vision and are likely to take uncalculated risks.

“Whenever a drunk driver is in a traffic mix, everybody and everything is in danger. The drunk driver, other motorists, pedestrians, animals  are at great risk,” he said.

In his remarks, the state governor, David Umahi, who was represented on the occasion by his Special Adviser on Transport, Mr Philips Eworo called on drivers to stay away from alcohol while driving as the yuletide period was often  associated with incidences of road mishaps.

Umahi also asked the FRSC to introduce alcoholic check on drivers while on the highway, adding that the state government was interested in ensuring the safety of lives and property on Nigerian roads.

In his lecture entitled: “Evils of Drinking and Driving,” presented by the Corps Commander in charge of Public Enlightenment, Imoh Etuk enumerated the commitment of the FRSC to stop drivers from drinking while driving; good driving habits and enlightenment campaigns just as constant research on the causes and effects of drunk driving were some of the solutions to the problem of drunk driving in the country.

In an interview with South East Voice, Iyamah further said that the death toll from the recent multiple accidents along Abakaliki-Enugu expressway remains four with many injured victims.