By Adetokunbo Abiola
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For old and rickety vehicles, their days are numbered on roads in Ondo State, as the government wants to establish twelve digitalized Motor Inspection Centres for the purpose of ensuring that vehicles plying roads are in  good working conditions.

In the past, manual checking of vehicles had been in vogue, but due to the nature of the Nigerian condition, unserviceable vehicles oozing out harzardous gases still remained very much in operations.

Though statistics are hard to come by, experts believe rickety and smoky vehicles contribute a lot towards the  incidence of motor accidents in the state, necessitating new thinking in the vehicle inspection sector.

According to news reports, the Ondo State Government would carry out integrity tests out on vehicles brought to the centres and issue out certificates of road worthiness to qualified ones.

The centre would help motorists put their vehicles in proper working conditions in accordance with global environmental safety standards, as the computers installed in them would analyze and diagnose the state of the vehicles.

Vehicles unable to pass integrity tests would be given one months to fix, before they are impounded if positive measures toward improving safety standard  are not implemented.

Speaking to The Hope, Mr. Tobi Ogunleye, Special Adviser to the State Governor on Transport, said the operational capacities of the Ore and Owo Centres would be large enough to accommodate all vehicles, including articulated trucks.

This  reporter learned the proposed computers for the centres would bring immediate results that show a critical diagnosis of every single vehicle brought for examination.

Vehicle inspection is a process mandated by governments all over the world to ensure a vehicle is inspected so it can conform to regulations governing safety, emission, or both.

In the past, inspections are carried out periodically or on the transfer of title to a vehicle, but in some         countries such as Netherlands, it is no longer necessary.

Inspection stations are situated so drivers can move into them to see if their vehicles pass inspection once they are due for the process.

It is therefore not surprising that motor vehicle administration has gone digital, due to the emerging challenges of road accidents caused mainly by the use of unworthy vehicles by both private individuals and commercial transport owners.

The impetus is  to meet the United Nations Decade of Action for the reduction of road crashes by 35 per cent globally.

The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is the first in Nigeria to adopt the computerized Vehicle Inspection Service (CVIS), which the administration of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi is introducing into the state.

In the past few years, states such as Lagos, Niger, Anambra and a few others have gravitated toward  the procedure.

In Lagos State, for instance, the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode instituted the Lagos Computerised Vehicle Inspection Scheme (LCVIS) to redefine road travels and establish a safe secure, reliable and efficient transport system.

Vehicle inspection  centres are springing up in parts  of Lagos such as Ojodu, Apapa, Epe, Oshodi, Odo-Olowu and other areas.

Fees chargeable for inspection at the centres are pocket friendly, and most centres attend to small to medium capacity vehicles such as buses, Saloons and suus while a few centres have the capacity to cope with bigger vehicle such as trailers and trucks.

In Niger State, the government vehicle Inspection Service is the one in charge  of its motor vehicles Administration, and it is under the state’s ministry of works and transport.

The body ensures all vehicles in the state are road worthy, and it carries out inspection duties in Minna, Suleja, Kontagora and Bida.

It  conducts periodic inspection to determine the road worthiness of a vehicles and issues certificates, for both public and private drivers.

Anambra State has also   joined the bandwagon  of states which  have  set up computer based vehicle inspection centres to replace the old ways of checking  vehicles for road worthiness.

The government there   expressed commitment to ensurings rickety vehicles are easily detected and ordered off the road.

Item  in Ondo State, Ogunleye said, “Computers that would be installed at the centre would be analyzing and diagnosing the state of vehicles.  Those who cannot pass the integrity tests  would be given one month to fix them.

“If such vehicles return and we discover that the conditions are  poor and are not fit to ply our roads, such vehicles would be impounded and would not be allowed to leave the compound of the inspection centre.”

Can the centres do something about the high rate of accidents on roads in Ondo State?

Experts told this reporter that the causes of road accidents include human, mechanical and environmental factors.

If rickety vehicles are taken off the roads, they say, roads would become cleaner, sooner and better regulated.

One way of achieving this, they say, is by fixing the mechanical condition of vehicles frontally, so as to reduce  the chances of accidents on Ondo State roads.

Still, the benefits to digital periodic testing at vehicles include improved maintenance culture, prevention of pollution from vehicle emissions, improved fuel   economy etc

If the present  administration of Akeredolu achieve, this, it will go a long way in achieving sanity  in  roads.

If road accidents are minimized, the benefits can extend to other areas of the state, especially when residents are desperate for  an improvement in the quality of living.