VIO is back!

You may have heard the news that Vehicle Inspection Office, popularly known as VIO, now pulls over vehicles at Ikeja. This comes a few years after the Lagos State government officially banned them from Lagos State roads.

The white-wearing law enforcement officers have now introduced new technology that will make them effective on the road without being a menace. It is the Electronic Inspection technology that will capture and issue fines immediately.

The major duties of the VIO are to carry out checks to ensure that cars are roadworthy and are properly licensed. The process is now expected to be done electronically.

The electronic device can pick an offender, go through the vehicle’s data, send the bill to the offender’s residence and do a follow-up. Sounds amusing, doesn’t it? The data of a lot of commercial vehicles and private cars are probably not on the records.

Many residents do not supply accurate data at the point of vehicle registration or updating their personal information when changes occur. This will cause a major hiccup for the new arrangement.

The Director of Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service, Gbolahan Toriola said they have:

“…installed the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition machines) in strategic locations, which is also installed on our vehicles, once our vehicles are parked at any location within the city, it captures vehicles that go against traffic rules and vehicles without plate number and their fines will be sent to their home.”

He added that they had employed a less human angle to deal with offenders and taken up technology as a way to combat traffic offence to enable them to work smarter.

However, VIO is urging Lagosians to bring in their vehicles for proper diagnosis at a reduced cost. They can then get them to update their records and use street cameras to monitor vehicle licenses and working conditions among other things on the road.

According to Vehicle Inspection Service, this is already working as over 1,000 motorists have received sanctions through text messages on their phones. Motorists are charged a penalty of N150,000 for flouting the rules.

The VIO also agrees that data capturing has been a serious problem in the country. Therefore, the state government has not been able to use electronic devices for enforcement like other megacities around the world.

This move is to bring Lagos on par with other cities like it across the globe. Do you think this can be done effectively in Lagos?