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Stemming carnage on Nigerian roads

By Bertram Nwannekanma
18 November 2016   |   4:59 am
The gloomy details of crashes on Nigerian roads are disturbing. Their crippling effects on the social and economic wellbeing of the country are no less alarming.
Fire fighters at the scene of Wednesday’s accident along Lagos-Ibadan Express Way.

Fire fighters at the scene of Wednesday’s accident along Lagos-Ibadan Express Way.

Deaths, horrific injuries, wrecks, traffic lock-downs, loss of invaluable hours …

The gloomy details of crashes on Nigerian roads are disturbing. Their crippling effects on the social and economic wellbeing of the country are no less alarming. Sadly, the carnage seems to be on the increase…

And on Wednesday, tragedy struck once again when three persons were burnt to death in a fire accident involving a tanker and three other vehicles on Kara Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The fire started around 3a.m., shortly after the brake of a tanker, laden with 33,000 litres of diesel, failed and rammed into a truck carrying brewery products at high speed. Scores of commuters were subjected to trekking long distances yesterday morning following the multiple accidents.

Expectedly, the incident worsened the already chaotic gridlock on the busy highway occasioned by the ongoing repair of the road. This left motorists and commuters stranded for several hours, especially on the lane outward Lagos, where the accident occurred.

The gridlock that started from the Kara Bridge, close to the popular Julius Berger Bus Stop, stretched to Asese, a few kilometres away from the Redemption Camp as at 8:00a.m.

Similarly, the queue formed by the Lagos outbound vehicles had stretched from the scene to Magodo, opposite the Lagos State Secretariat complex.

Many intending passengers who had wanted to travel from border communities to Lagos were stranded at their various bus stops because majority of the commercial buses that could have conveyed them were held in the traffic.

Some motorists, who were stuck in traffic for hours and had their plans disrupted as a result of the incident, lamented that the accident has become one too many.

One of them, who gave his name simply as Dare, urged the Federal Government and other relevant authorities to prevail on the contractor handling the road repairs to be more professional in order to lessen the several man-hours spent on the highway daily.

According to him, an average motorist spends between three to four hours between Tollgate and Warewa everyday because of the ongoing rehabilitation on Long Bridge, which he said is being done without recourse to the sufferings of road users.

He berated the government for not doing enough to safeguard the lives of its citizens on the road, saying there are many avoidable accidents on the road due to its poor state.

Also affected were those travelling to Lagos from other parts of Nigeria as well as those travelling outside Lagos.

According to a witness, the resultant inferno engulfed two other trucks and a Toyota Corolla saloon car. Mercifully, the number of casualty was minimal.

 FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi

FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi

Spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Southwest zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, who confirmed the incident, attributed the cause of the accident to lack of vehicle maintenance.

Also, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), in a statement, said the incident occurred at 3:08a.m involving the tanker, two container-laden trucks and one saloon car.

“The driver was said to have abruptly applied brake at the Kara Bridge outward Lagos resulting in the multiple accident and fire outbreak with colossal loss”

Sadly, the carnage occurred when the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) recently described 2016 as an improvement in the figures of road crashes recorded between the same period in 2015.

According to the Head Media Relations and Strategy of the Corps, Bisi Kazeem, analysis showed that from January to August 2015, a total of 5,953 crashes were recorded involving 39,119 people in which 3,233 of them died and 17,189 others were rescued alive.

However, within the same period in 2016, 5,707 crashes were recorded involving 38,222 people out of which 3,048 died and 17,446 others were rescued alive.

Other comparative analysis with regard to the Eid El Kabir traffic revealed that the Corps recorded a total of 94 crashes involving 767 people out of which, 44 died and 312 others were rescued alive.

Notwithstanding this notable feat, stakeholders have called for concerted efforts to check frequency of crashes on Nigerian roads especially, when road accidents have been ranked second highest source of violent death in Nigeria next to Boko Haram insurgency.

This ugly situation, they said has also put Nigeria in the world map as the second highest in the rate of road accidents among 193 countries of the world.

Also the World Health Organization (WHO), recently adjudged Nigeria the most dangerous country in Africa with 33.7 deaths per 100,000 populations every year.

According to WHO, one in every four-road accident deaths in Africa, occurs in Nigeria.

For instance, last year, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi, his wife and son were killed along the ever-busy Kaduna-Abuja road. There was also the death of the Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Army, Major General Yushau Mahmood Abubakar on the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road few days earlier.

Another 20 persons were reportedly killed in road accidents within the same period in Bauchi state.

These figures exclude those that took place in other parts of the country.

In 2013 for instance, 6450 Nigerians lost their lives on our roads, which includes 4552 men, 1398 women, 299 boys and 201 girls.

According to FRSC’s reports, 30435 people were killed in road accidents in Nigeria between 2009 and 2013, thereby making road crashes deadlier than HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Also the chairman of the Road Safety Coalition (RSC), Mr. Patrick Adenusi , recently noted that despite the huge resources and time devoted by officials on the roads, high volume of chaos still persist in Nigeria roads.

He therefore stressed the need to tackle the issue of poor road users for Nigeria to move forward.

For Human rights lawyer, and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana the time is now for the investigation of all road traffic accidents and the prosecution of offending motorists.

According to him, the killing of Nigerians on the roads should be stopped  or reduced drastically.

While regretting that government has not lived up to its constitutional duties, he stated plans of  collecting  data on the number  of deaths on the Lagos- Ibadan expressed as a result of the  deplorable state of the road with a view to initiating legal actions against government and others who contributed to the state of the road.

Gridlock

Gridlock

He further called on the Lagos state government to ensure that commercial vehicles plying in the state  are insured  so that those who died in accident were not simply wasted.

The Assistant Corps Marshal Shehu Zaki, stressed the need for collaboration among relevant stakeholders to proffer solution to road crashes as well as formulate a frame work that will assist each of the agencies in its work in reducing road crashes in Nigeria.

According to him, the corps has done a lot to reduce the number of crashes through the enforcement of the speed limits.

His views received tacit support from the Lagos state’s acting commissioner for transportation, Prince Anofi Elegushi, who stressed the need to sustain private initiatives to complement government’s effort in ensuring safety of our roads.
According to him, the creation of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) represents the government’s commitment to ensuring compliance of road safety in the state.

He stressed that despite the economic recession, the state has engaged additional 1200 officials of Lagos state traffic management Agency (LASTMA) and 2000 Vehicle inspection officers (VIOS) to help in enforcement of traffic laws.

Also poised to x –ray the issue of enforcement of road safety on the road and the need to give vulnerable road users priority, the Road Safety Coalition (RSC), recently held a national summit in Lagos.

The summit held in conjunction with NNPC/Chevron Joint venture, made some far reaching recommendations that will guarantee effectiveness to enforcement of road safety laws.

In the summit, which has its theme as “ Road Safety Enforcement in Nigeria: Where are We?”, stakeholders came up with strategies needed to maximize the role of enforcement in providing a coordinated approach to achieving an accident free road.

They identified lack of adequate public transportation system and exposure of law enforcers to dangers on the road as major problems of enforcement on the road.

They also mentioned lack of collaboration of law enforcement agencies, inadequate training and equipment, uncooperative attitude of commercial bus operators towards the road safety laws as factors.

Other factors identified include, executive lawlessness on the road by members of security and government agencies, resistance of arrest by other law enforcement agencies and poor attitude of the enforcement agencies towards road safety enforcement.

To mitigate road crashes, they called for inter-agency cooperation, collaboration and coordination of activities among enforcement agencies.
They also seek collaboration of the enforcement agencies in ensuring a structured driver’s licensing process

According to them, there is also need to change the perception of members of the public as regards the attitude of all individuals including law enforcement officers towards obeying traffic laws

They further called for the use of technology in the enforcement process to reduce direct contact between motorists and law enforcement agencies as well as
continuous education on road safety laws and practices at all times especially when renewing driving licenses.

Others include the release of reliable database of persons and vehicles alongside the harmonization of these data by the agencies to foster prosecution of traffic offenders.

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