REDUCING ROAD CARNAGE
Regulators could do more to curtail the menace
The rise in the number of crashes on our roads is both distressing and frightening. Just last week, no fewer than 28 persons were killed in two separate accidents on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State, and along Potiskum-Gombe Road, Yobe State. In the Ogun incident, 18 persons were confirmed dead when two Mazda buses and a Previa bus crashed around Isara Bridge. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Assistant Corps Marshal, Bisi Kazeem, who decried recent incessant road accidents, said motorists should avoid night travels because of the inherent dangers. Particularly disturbing is that majority of these accident victims are people at the prime of their productive years. Apart from the burden that road mishap places on victims’ families, they take a huge toll on the national economy.
Available reports from both the FRSC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have, at different times, listed major causes of accidents on our roads. Accidents often occur when motorists drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs or are distracted. Other causes vehicular accidents include street racing by children of affluent parents, especially in Abuja and capital cities, dangerous road curves, fog, tire blowouts, fatigue by drivers, etc. With N450 billion estimated to be lost annually from goods and services that perish in these road accidents, insufficient safety features in vehicles and speed limit violation by reckless drivers, are some other factors responsible.
Beyond the foregoing, driving on Nigeria’s approximately 200,183 kilometres road network can be risky and arduous as large swathes have broken down and are ridden with potholes due to neglect. Apart from many of the major highways that are littered with craters, driving at night is comparable to walking through a dark alley because of lack of streetlights. Besides, the unpassable state of many of our roads have literally made them a den for robbers and kidnappers, who waylay innocent passengers at any time of the day to carry out their nefarious activities. We therefore call on the authorities at all levels to fulfil their constitutional and civil duty to the public by fixing major roads to mitigate the distressing harvest of deaths. It amounts to criminal negligence that many lives are being wasted on our roads despite the promises made by successive administrations.
In every four hours, going by available statistics, at least two lives are lost to road carnage and every year, with about 20,000 of the 11.654 million vehicles in the country are involved in accidents. It is common knowledge that there are too many rickety vehicles on our roads. The tyres of several vehicles plying the road are either worn out or are in a state of disrepair, just as their brakes are often suspect. Some drivers operate in foggy condition with bad functional headlamps. But the tragedies and mounting body count from accidents can be curbed by simple common sense and inexpensive remedial interventions.
If we must put an end to this preventable harvest of deaths, government agencies, including the FRSC, Vehicle Inspection Offices and Police traffic departments should take drastic steps to ensure that our roads remain safe all the time. The federal government should also consider enacting a National Road Safety Policy that will outline various policy measures pertaining to road safety. These include raising awareness about road safety, creating a road safety information database, promoting safer road infrastructure, encouraging safer vehicles, identifying needs of vulnerable road users, enforcing road safety laws, and ensuring medical facilities for victims when accidents occur.
