Hours to the celebration of the Eld-el Kabir festival, Federal Road Safety Corps, says it has deployed no fewer than one thousand five hundred personnel to various routes to avert accidents and gridlock during the celebration.

According to the Lagos State Command, the effort was to curb recklessness among drivers during the festive period, saying already the corps headquarters has rolled out the operational order for the Sallah break, and the command was following that operational order to the letter.

Its Sector Commander, Hyginus Omeje said various enlightenment programmes had been put in place to educate the drivers on the implications of reckless driving.

Omeje also said the corps would introduce breath measurement in the course of Sallah operations, especially on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to detect cases of driving under the influence of alcohol.

He advised motorists to drive safely and abide by the traffic rules and regulations to avoid crashes during and after the festive period.

According to Omeje, road users should remember that life has no duplicate and commercial drivers prone to overloading should shun overloading and speeding, saying they should have the right attitudes towards the use of the road because the problems were actually the road usage more than the state of the road itself.

Meanwhile, the FRSC had deployed thirty-three thousand personnel and eight hundred and fifty-nine vehicles for a nationwide special patrol during the Sallah to ensure free flow of traffic as well as check accidents.

According to Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, the massive deployment of personnel and vehicles would help tackle the persistent wrong road usage by motorists, saying the wrong road usage often resulted in high number of Road Traffic Crashes during festivities.

On the level of preparedness of the FRSC to handle emergencies, the Corps Marshal urged members of the public not to hesitate to call FRSC Toll-free line: 122; 0700-CALL-FRSC (0700–2255–3772) or 112 to report emergency situations, noting that rescue teams have been mobilised and are on a standby at strategic locations to respond promptly to distress calls.

The federal government has declared Friday September one and Monday fourth as public holidays for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.