The Patient Dog
Road Safety
I love dogs. In fact, I am crazy about dogs. This craze dates back to my teens. As I grew up, the craze doubled and tripled when I enlisted into the Federal Road Safety Commission. As an American would say, I went bananas, acquiring all sorts; Rott, Durbarman, Alsthesian, German shepherd. My only cheque was my take- home. At one point, I had six breeds all bought with gbese-debt.I had become a regular so much so that once I point, I pick for the asking from my favorite dog dealer in Abuja named doggy. The costs for these dogs were hidden in so much secrecy from both my wife and mother. Both women would have dragged me for spiritual cleansing. My wife would have been the worse. She hates dogs, but loves the puppies for the money they bring-very typical Delta-Ibo that she is. My boys however, are my pride-taking after me as they have caught the dog bug.
Today, I am excited over the economic meltdown as my addiction has just disappeared without any pastor straining to deliver me from the spirit of dogs. I am now contended with just three lovely dogs; ziddane, shakira and lucy. But if you think I am crazy, ask Sony Irabor. Like every dog lover, I have had my sad moments. On two occasions I lost Rambo and Master. Their death broke my heart. Ask my wife and she would tell you how much these dogs mean to my and my household. Each time you ask her to name members of the family; the list was never complete without our dogs’ names after our sons’.
Well, today’s piece is not about dogs although it provides the trust as it reminds me of an advert I stumbled on way back University days. I think that advert was displayed somewhere around Allen/Opebi during the glittering days of the emergence of this highbrow area. It read,’ the patient dog eats no bone’’ in contrast to the old saying that,’ a patient dog eats the fattest bone.
I can’t recollect the agency that came up with the advert. I can’t even fathom the product or even the client. All I can remember is that it was a beautiful concept that for me ranks alongside the one on Gulder max beer- “a man was here” and the one on Johnny Walker, ‘keep walking’. Now I have dogs and I know that when they are hungry or thirsty, patience is not one virtue that they display. When my dogs sight me after work, patience disappears from their dictionary as they wag their tail to show love and to welcome me home. Such gestures, however disappear when they see you as a threat So, to describe dogs as patient was for me misplacing, although it was appropriate in preaching about patience.
Therefore, for any creative mind to stand this saying on its head as far back as the 1980s was indeed prophetic as today that advert vividly captures our driving habits which is devoid of respect for one another while patience, a necessary virtue in redressing road crashes, is rarely imbibed. As you prepare to celebrate another Christmas, please kindly reflect on how you drove last year. How have you been driving since then? Patiently? Are you one of the rage drivers in town? Do you allow your personal problems-financial,emotional affect your driving? Do you have a penchant for flouting traffic rules at will. Have you been involved in a road crash? Do you know that a road crash is not an accident? Do you know that the 6661 lives lost through road traffic crashes in 2008 were avoidable and preventable? All that is required is a change in our driving habits.Imbibing patience and being disciplined remains fundamental. Available statistics in Lagos shows that a total of 914 lives were lost in 2007 as against 650 in 2008. The same statistics shows that 2,411 and 1,881 people, respectively, were injured within the same period. A further analysis shows that 1,270–number of males as against 294 females died between 2007 and 2008 respectively. This should sound a note of warning to bread winners and their dependants as we prepare for another celebration.
Don’t get too spiritual. Pray as you drive but act and avoid tempting God by passing the buck to him. In the words of an observer, “we are the only being that has left everything to the will of God while the rest of the world is busy finding solutions to safety issues. We plead the blood, blame the devil, blame government and its agencies while our responsibilities as citizens who directly bear the brunt of road crashes is played down.”
In the foreword written by South African Bishop Tutu, in Make Roads Safe, A Decade of Action for Road Safety, the respected Clergy expressed similar concern. He noted that “from time to time in human history there comes a killer epidemic that is not recognised for what it is and is not acted against until it is almost too late. HIV/AIDS which is ravaging Sub Saharan Africa, is one such. Road traffic injuries have the potential to be one. We ignore it at our peril. This epidemic is invisible through its ubiquity, yet when we stop to add together the daily toll in each neighborhood or city, each country and region, we can comprehend the true tragedy: 3,500 people killed every day, thousands more seriously injured;260,000 childeren killed every year, and more than a million more seriously injured, with barely a voice raised in protest.”
Yet, according to the celebrated Bishop, this is predominantly a killer of the poor. It is the poorest communities which live alongside the fastest roads. It is the poorest children who have to negotiate the most dangerous routes to school. It is the most vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists, who are at great risk yet…’’.Out of the 1.3 million killed each year and more than 50 million injured, a toll greater than deaths from Malaria, ninety percent of these road casualties are in low and middle income countries such as ours. Yet it is the same group who are potential victims that rarely think safety should be a priority. They are the ones who more often throw decency to the wind; assault and abduct Marshals for cautioning them against acts capable of maiming or even killing them. They are the ones whose vehicles are rarely maintained because of the economic realities. Yet these same groups would savour pepper soup joints, gulp available liquor even on credit while the least safety apparatus in their vehicles are ignored.
These same groups delude themselves always as their choice of travel is often at great risk; night journeys, bad weather driving, bumper to bumper driving (tail-gazing). The three people burnt beyond recognition last Friday along Lagos-Ibadan, the fourth who died on the way to the hospital, and the seven vehicles out of nine burnt were not vehicles of the nouvre rich, not of the few privileged, but of people struggling to become great despite not being born with a silver spoon. They forget that this hidden road injury epidemic is a crisis for public health and a major contributor to the causes of poverty. Therefore, all that we require is a change in how we use the road by exercising patience which in the Thesaurus, is described as the capacity of enduring hardships or inconvenience without complaint, or tolerance. In the Make Roads Safe manual, what I find most instructive is the need for individual change. Such a change should embrace the fact that a significant number of lives can be saved by improving how people manage just a few human behaviors, including use of seatbelt; wearing a crash helmet; tackling inappropriate speed and drinking and driving.
Speed kills.The chances of survival for an unprotected pedestrian hit by a vehicle diminish rapidly at speeds greater than 30km/h, whereas for a properly restrained motor vehicle occupant, the critical impact speed is 50km/h for side impact crashes and 70km/h for head-on crashes.Please, IF YOU LOVE SPEED, PLEASE TAKE TIME TO LEARN THIS SONG. IT MAY NOT HIT THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE IN NIGERIA,NEITHER WILL IT DREAM OF A GRAMMY,BUT TRUST ME THAT YOU WILL FIND IT HELPFUL ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOVE LIFE AND TRULY WISH TO LIVE beyond this season..
THE LINES ARE SIMPLE .EVEN IF YOU FAILED YOUR MUSIC EXAMS,YOU WILL COPE.THE SONG SAYS AT 80KM/H, GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF ME, AT 100KM/H WHICH INCIDENTALLY IS THE APPROVED SPEED LIMIT FOR CARS ON NIGERSAN ROADS, GUIDE ME O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH AND AT 129KM/H, NEARER MY GOD TO THEE. ARE YOU NOODING AS YOU TRY TO FIT YOUR DRIVING INTO THESE LINES? IT SAYS ALSO THAT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE SPEEDING AT 140KM/H, THEIR CHANT SHOULD BE, THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME, AT 160KM/H,LORD, I AM COMING HOME WHILE AT 180KM/H,SWEET ARE THE MEMORIES OF THE DEAD. BUT IF THESE VARIOUS SPEED STILL DOES NOT MEET YOUR DRIVE SENSE AND YOU CHOOSE TO GO ABOVE 180KM/H, JUST KEEP IT MELANCHOLIC BY SINGING, TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE. SO,WHICH OF THESE SPEED FITS YOU? WHETHER ON THE HIGHWAY OR BUILT UP AREAS? I DON’T KNOW YOUR REACTIONS TO THE SONG, BUT IT SHOWS HOW BAD A DRIVER WE ALL ARE, INCLUDING ME THAT WE NEED TO STAB THE COSMETIC APPROACH BY CALLING PAST TIME WHICH OVER THE YEARS HAS TAKEN US TO WHERE WE ARE. NOW YOU KNOW THAT MACHINE IS WORSE THAN A BAZOOKER OR AK-47. So you must check your speed and ensure that all occupants in the vehicle, including children are properly restrained to prevent ejection in the event of a crash. Do not lap that baby in the car and avoid all forms of complacency like the folly of the first Adam.
Such complacency has robbed families of their bread winners. Robbed the nation of individuals whose contributions would have helped in Nation building. The 650 lost last year in Lagos are not just victims but human beings. Unfortunately we allow the abstract numbers to deflect our attention from the reality of the lives of those affected. Yet such lives could have been saved by a change in behavior especially in the use of seat belts, crash helmets and inappropriate speed. Unfortunately, impatience ranks high in the human weaknesses displayed on the road daily; the tendency to drive above the speed approved by law all in the name of meeting a business appointment and the tendency to drive and phone on the wheels in total disregard of the law and the safety implications among others.
These behaviors for me provide the basis for the prediction by WHO that by 2015, road crashes will be the leading cause of premature death and disability for children aged five and above. The epidemic is said to rob more families of their loved ones and their livelihood as the number of those killed doubles to well over two million per year by 2020.
Most of us operate motor vehicles on a daily basis and hardly ever pay any attention to one of the most vital parts of the vehicle which are our tires. Unfortunately very few of us change this bad habit until it is too late. Did you know that tires expire 4 years after the date of manufacture and this date is stamped on the side of the tire?
It is very easy to find out what the expiration date is on a tire, if you check on the side of it, you will have a 4 digit number stamped on it, this number indicates the week and the year it was manufactured, the expiration date will be 4 years later. This number indicates that the tire was manufactured on the 7th week of 2007 or which is the same February 2007 that would place the expiration date on February 2011. If we use expired tires these are likely to burst and result in a very serious or even a fatal accident, it would be a good practice for us to check our tires and make sure they have not passed their expiration date.
Another important point that we miss many times is proper tire inflation and this has claimed many lives.
On the side of the tire, you will also find the maximum allowable inflating pressure for that specific tire, some tires have a maximum pressure of 32 PSI some are rated at 44PSI and some even at 50 PSI. Check your specific tire to see what the maximum pressure is for your tires, it is an acceptable practice to have your tires a few pounds below maximum allowable pressure but not too much. Different tires are designed for different pressures you will find your maximum tire inflation pressure on a small number next to the rim on the side of the tire, never exceed this pressure
Lower pressure increases tire heat, infrared photography of tires tested at high speed damaging heat increases as pressure drops. Another important point to consider is the load we put on our tires, many times we overload our vehicles without paying any attention to the strain this puts on our tires, exceeding the maximum load rating on a tire may also lead to tire failure and could result in an accident.
In conclusion, please be defensive in your driving.Remember that a lot of people you see as drivers are bad road users.Dont let your safety depend on their actions.Avoid tailgating. A lot will drive impaired mostly by alcohol. Watch out for their errors. Enjoy the season.
