27 cars have been seized by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) for alleged "severe violations" of safety regulations. 

The action, according to LASTMA, was taken in response to many warnings and was intended to stop the "pervasive and hazardous practice of vehicular overloading." 

Adebayo Taofiq, the director of the organization's Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, said in a statement on Thursday that the "commercial and private vehicles found to be in flagrant breach of prescribed loading limits and established safety standards."

“During an early-morning, coordinated enforcement exercise conducted after repeated warnings issued through multiple public sensitization platforms, the Agency impounded twenty-seven (27) commercial and private vehicles found to be in flagrant breach of prescribed loading limits and established safety standards,” Taofiq said.

According to the agency, the operation was conducted because of "heightened concerns over the escalating risks posed by overloaded vehicles on major arterial corridors and densely trafficked inner-city routes." 

A "deeply disconcerting pattern wherein motorists, particularly operators of commercial vehicles, indiscriminately burden their vehicles with assorted goods, including bulky items and perishable commodities, stored indiscriminately within luggage compartments and precariously mounted atop vehicle roofs," according to the agency's assessment. 

According to the traffic authority, "unsafe practices" significantly raise the likelihood of preventable traffic accidents by "grossly obstructing rearward visibility, destabilizing vehicular balance, and critically impairing a driver's situational awareness of approaching traffic, especially during overtaking manoeuvres.""."

According to the traffic authority, "unsafe practices" significantly raise the likelihood of preventable traffic accidents by "grossly obstructing rearward visibility, destabilizing vehicular balance, and critically impairing a driver's situational awareness of approaching traffic, especially during overtaking manoeuvres."".

LASTMA’s General Manager, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, said the overloading “constitutes a serious contravention of the State’s traffic laws and poses grave dangers not only to the occupants of the offending vehicles but also to other road users,” the statement read.

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