As the nation began
to see a gradual easing of movement restrictions yesterday, commuters returning
to work and using Keke were pleasantly surprised to see protective partitions
erected between the rider and passengers, in a number of localities across
Lagos State where these vehicles are plying.
The partition, developed by the
Simba Group and called the Simba Safety Shield, is a transparent acrylic sheet,
which serves to protect riders and passengers from one another during the
commute.
As has been seen in
several parts of the country, tricycles have proved increasingly popular since
the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to their inherent advantages for social
distancing including low number of passengers, as well as open cross
ventilation through the vehicles. This follows guidance issued both by the
Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, as well as various State Governments
limiting the number of people riding Keke to three persons (driver plus two
passengers) at any given time.
The National Head
for Simba TVS, distributors of TVS branded tricycles, Mr Mahendra Pratap said,
“We are grateful to our engineering team for developing this truly home-grown
innovative solution in a short period of time. This is a first of its kind safety
accessory, and we have started to scale the production seeing the tremendous
response we have got in just one day. We are grateful also to the Keke riders,
who play such a vital role in the nation’s transport infrastructure, and are
happy that this innovative product is serving its purpose.
A public health
practitioner and leading health advocate, Lola James said that “as the health
sector takes prominence in the frontline defense against this virus, its
wonderful to see these sorts of innovations at the backend, which are likely to
help reduce the spread. The keke’s are already safer since they carry fewer passengers.
This safety shield forms an additional barrier of protection.
As the need to start
moving from point to point gradually returns, it is imperative that we find
modes of public transport that are as safe as possible and for now, the
tricycle, especially with these shields, seem to be amongst the top choices.
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