Federal Road Safety Corps has engaged one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one drivers nationwide in a free and voluntary Eye Test during the Eid-El Kabir special patrol operations.

According to the Corps, the free eye test which ran from August seventeen to twenty-six was successfully carried out in collaboration with the Optometrists Association across the country.

Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, said out of the total number of drivers tested by the optometrists, three hundred and fifty drivers were discovered to have sight defects while thirty-five drivers went home with free eyeglasses.

Kazeem also said a total of four thousand nine hundred and eighty-three offenders were apprehended over six thousand and ninety-seven offences committed across two thousand three hundred and sixty routes covered by the Corps during the Sallah special patrol operations.

He said the most prevalent offence recorded during the period was Seatbelt Use Violation with one thousand five hundred and forty offenders apprehended.

Kazeem also said a number of Mobile Court sittings were conducted across the country during the period.

A total of 102 persons were arraigned during the mobile court operations compared to 218 persons in 2017; while 99 offenders were convicted compared to 208 in 2017, and 3 persons were discharged and acquitted.

Corps Public Education Officer said the Corps recorded a significant increase in the number of people rescued without injury during the 2018 Eid El Kabir Sallah special patrol operations.

He said a total of 612 persons were rescued without injury as against 552 persons in the same period in 2017 representing 10.87% increase. Accordingly, the increase was as a result of improved patrol operations.

Quoting the Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, Kazeem stated that the Corps now has a wider coverage due to the establishment of more FRSC Commands, Outposts, Roadside clinics, and Zebra points that now feed in reports from different routes that were hitherto not thoroughly covered.

He stressed that the increase in the number of road crashes, persons involved, and persons killed were due to the reports that emanated from the new FRSC formations.

The positive changes in the reduction of offences and offenders can be attributable to the increase in public enlightenment, enforcement, traffic control, cooperation from stakeholders, and the fully automated process of obtaining drivers licence, Kazeem emphasised.