Federal Road Safety Corps,FRSC, has raised an alarm over the high accident rate on the Okene-Lokoja-Koton Karfe-Gegu road corridor which claimed 79 lives in the past five months.

Its Zonal Commanding Officer, John Meheux, who raised the alarm at the launching of a special intervention patrol along the corridor, says ninety-five accidents are recorded along the corridor within the same period.

Meheux says seven hundred and eighty-nine persons are involved in the accidents, out of which three hundred and ninety-nine sustained varying degrees of injury.

Meheux, who is in charge of Ekiti, Kwara and Kogi states, stresses the need to check the trend, saying the decision to introduce a special intervention patrol is to reduce the carnage, as the road is the second in the country to be accorded such attention.

According to him, the intervention will help to reverse the trend and bring sanity to that corridor which serves as gateway to twenty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He also says the operation will in the first instance last for six months, saying fifty-six officers, ten patrol vans, one tow truck and one ambulance will be deployed for the operation.

Meheux, an Assistant Corp Marshall warns motorists plying the corridor to cooperate with the FRSC in its efforts to restore sanity to the road, saying violation of traffic rules will no longer be overlooked.

Kogi Sector Commander, Ogochukwu Ugboma, says the focus of the operation will be on overloading, driving with worn out tyres, use of cell phone while driving, among others.