Guarding Against Excessive Speed in 2022

ROAD SAFETY

I wish I was a Prophet. I also wish that God called me to be His Minister with a thriving Church in any part of the country but I am grateful that I have my market place which is saving precious lives on the road. However, I sometimes operate prophetically in my marketplace like I have done in previous years, when in December I raised alarm on certain behavioral tendencies responsible for avoidable road traffic crashes such as excessive speeding.

But before I continue, I must start this piece by first expressing my profound gratitude to the Almighty God for his mercies that kept us all through 2021.The year 2021 was loaded with challenges but in all of these challenges, we are still standing strong and thankful for the gift of life. I must thank God also, for my readers and my editors as well as my critics who spare me the blade whenever they attempt to hit me below the belt for not meeting up to their expectations.

I must also express gratitude to God for those who ignored the wise counsel against travelling during 2021 yuletide because of the inherent risks in the face of the current global pandemic and its variants. These counsels and warnings came from various quarters such as the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as world leaders. The World Health Organization was the first to warn countries not to underestimate Omicron. The WHO observed that over 77 countries had reported while noting that it is in most countries even if not reported. The Organization warned that Omicron is spreading at a rate not seen with any previous variant, warning countries and individuals not to dismiss Omicron as mild, saying that whoever does so is at his peril noting that the sheer number of cases could overwhelm health systems. The WHO therefore appealed for sustained vaccination as well as compliance to other protocols. Even the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson and other world leaders reechoed similar warnings, pleading for restrictions on travels during the yuletide which in our clime fell on deaf ears as most people including my dear pals dared Omicron and travelled without compliance with the protocols.

Now that we have crossed over to 2022, the year that holds greater promises from above, it is time to pause and attempt a postmortem on how we fared in 2021. I am sure you heard the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps when he lamented on the spate of road crashes especially the ill-fated fatal crash that occurred during the yuletide around Baguada Law School, on Kano-Zaria expressway caused majorly by excessive speed and loss of control. The statement conveyed directives to intensify enforcement of the installation of speed limiting devices by commercial vehicles operators nationwide. The statement further noted that the unfortunate crash occurred as a result of speed limit violation involving two Toyota buses which conveyed a total of 45 passengers out of which 26 were injured while 19 comprising 15 male adults and five female adults were killed.

During our media chat as stated earlier, we identified speed violation, dangerous driving, route violation as major causative factors within the Federal Capital Territory. I was therefore not surprised when some observers within the FCT submitted that crashes in the Abuja roads are birthed from over speeding and driving under the influence such as the one which occurred along the Kubwa express and claimed some lives. Another concurred but added poor driving skills. There were several others who shared the same with a handful submitting that no regards for other road users as well as basic driving etiquette were also responsible.

The development has prompted our renewed enforcement on speed limiting devices in 2022 which is compulsory for commercial vehicles. Although I intend to focus on speed limiting devices next week, permit me to inform you that in 2021, a total of 5006 arrests were effected within Zone 7 comprising the FCT and Niger State. However, the sampled views make it imperative for the FRSC to also focus on private car owners who also constitute a cross section of bad and irresponsible drivers in Abuja and other parts of the country. That is why I am prompted today to publish this piece which I hope would deter speed freaks from committing driving hara-kiri. I do hope you know what happens when you fail to drive by the approved speed limit as contained in our traffic laws. Statistics available to the Federal Road Safety Corps indicates that excessive speed ranks as the highest causative factor, accounting for about 725 cases in the FCT in 2021. Dangerous driving is the second highest as it accounted for 109 cases. This is despite the provisions of the National Road Traffic Regulations which spells out the speed limits for various categories of vehicles on our roads. While the law specifies 100km/h for private cars for private cars on the expressway, the same law specifies a speed limit of 90km/h for taxis and buses. Trailers and Tankers have a maximum speed of 60km/h and 45km/h for towing vehicles while in a build-up area, the speed limit could be between 20-30km/h to 50km/h.

Despite this prohibition on speed, excessive speeding remains on the increase even though research findings indicate that at a speed of a 1000km/h, your vehicle does 28 metres per hour. This development prompted the Corps to midwife the installation of speed limiters in vehicles. It held nationwide stakeholders’ fora on speed limiting devices and called on relevant stakeholders such as the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on the need for speed calming devices to be installed along strategic corridors. Across the country, various stakeholders threw their weight behind the new initiatives, stressing the significance of speed limiters in the campaign to check excessive speeding in the country.

They noted that the issue of speed had been on the front burner of the World Health Organization (WHO) advocacy as a key factor in road traffic injuries, influencing both the risk of crash and the severity of the injuries that result from crashes. They added that the WHO and Global Road Safety Partnership, in a publication, “Speed Management on road safety Manual for decision makers and practitioners” recommends that speed limits be introduced in every country as a part of the global strategy to cut down road fatalities.

So, what really is speed? Speed according to Adewale Akande, in a paper. “Excessive Speed as a vital Human Factor in Road Traffic Accidents,” is defined as exceeding the posted limit or driving too fast under stipulated or normal conditions. Speeding is deemed to have occurred when an individual is travelling above the accepted legal speed limit on any road. Speed limit varies between roads as was cited earlier. For emphasis, the maximum speed limit is 100%km/h and 50km/h in built up areas. It is the obligation of the traffic law to signify any change in speed between routes. Speed limits are introduced to promote greater road safety and prevent environmental pollution such as noise and smoke.

In a safety research conducted by the Centre for Automotive Safety Research at Adelaide University in South Australia a few years ago, it was found that for every 5 kilometer per hour, increase in vehicle speed over the limit in a 60km/h Zone, the risk of crashing doubles. The research explains further that a driver travelling at 70km/h faces four times the risk of a driver traveling at the speed limit. Further research on excessive speed states that, when the stopping distance increases, other maneuvers to avoid crashes become more difficult and complicated.