A senior official of FCT Directorate of Road Transport Services, Mr Aminu Ibrahim, has advised against the use of sport utility vehicles as official cars by top government functionaries.
Ibrahim, who gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, said such vehicles were not designed for uses they were put to in Nigeria.
He said such vehicles were not designed to run beyond 120km per hour but the users in Nigeria never adhered to the regulation.
He said such vehicles were designed in a manner that the distance between the tyre reams and the ground was higher than those of saloon cars and made it difficult for control during accidents.
He explained that when there was a tyre burst and the vehicle was being driven on high speed it was more likely to change the trajectory of the vehicle and make it more difficult to control.
Ibrahim further said that such vehicles had much bigger windows than cars and that in case of accident an occupant was more likely to fall out through the window.
He disagreed with the view that passengers not wearing seatbelts always resulted in fatalities during accidents and pointed out that seatbelts only stopped passengers from being flung forward during accidents.
Ibrahim said seatbelts never stopped passengers from slipping out of vehicles during accidents.
He advised that government functionaries revert to using cars, which are closer to the ground and have smaller windows, to reduce fatalities during accidents.
Ibrahim also advocated strict adherence to speed limits by the motorcades of public functionaries to avert accidents. (NAN)