Beware of Insane Drivers
Road Safety Article
Sometime last week, I strolled leisurely into my office with so many thoughts on my mind; thoughts of where to raise funds to sort out so many personal challenges and hopefully also meet the needs of some close friends and people I do not know but who think that with the rank of Assistant Corps Marshal in the Federal Road Safety Corps, I must be in the league of the Dangote’s and the Otedola’s. Even the educated ones assume that for every vehicle arrested for traffic infraction, somebody somewhere must be rubbing my palms. My new assignment as Corps Public Education Officer, even complicates the matter.
There were also thoughts on how to handle the numerous phone calls, text messages and WhatsApp chats for assistance with matters patterning to driver license especially from Nigerians who in our local parlance, have japaed. I also had thoughts on what topic to focus on this week which for me was most disturbing because of the deadline required. I know I have heard people who are writers complain on what they call writer’s block. Now if gifted writers would lament on what to focus on then should a bloody road safety officer like me trying to reach out to road users be going through, if you catch my drift. The reasons for a writer’s block such as fear, timing and perfectionism and being chronically broke on such a sensitive weekend such as the Easter weekend were all staring me in the face.
Even when I tried some of the getaway tricks such as going for a walk, changing environment, reading a book, listening to music or staying with someone who makes me feel good just did not help me. When I could not make a headway on what to focus on, my mind suddenly flashed on the essence for the Easter season which is about the death of Christ for the redemption of humanity as expounded in the Holy book and some of the sound bites of the festivities in Nigeria when people end up attempting suicide in the name of driving.
Even that was without form or substance and could not even relieve me. It was just then that a colleague walked into my office oblivious of my inner struggles and asked me if I had heard of the tragic death of the wife of one of my former personal assistants shortly after childbirth. I said no and with a sad look on my face, asked him exactly what happened and where. Without knowing how much of a saviour he had become to me; he gave me a snippet of the incident.
According to his story, his former personal assistant left working with me on the grounds of having enough time for family. He obliged and wished him well. For over three years they never had a course to discuss except for the usual new month messages. He then told me that it was a colleague of his who notified him of the condition of his former personal assistant whose wife urgently needed to go through a caesarean operation to save both mother and child. Sadly despite the efforts of colleagues to assist, the baby was delivered safely but unfortunately, the mother passed on.
His former personal assistant who is now survived by a two weeks baby and a daughter was working with a private company in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja where according to colleagues, he had carved a niche for himself as a disciplined and time conscious staff. On this fateful day, Jimmy had left his house after pacifying his beautiful daughter with a promise to buy her favourite chocolate on his way from work not knowing what fate held for me.
He hugged his daughter, gave her a kiss and waved as he opened the door and immediately flagged down a cab just in front of their two-bedroom apartment in one of the estates in Abuja. He boarded the car and had a smooth and safe ride and alighted at the nearest junction to his office at the central business district without hiccups. He was crossing the road to the other side where his office is when he was knocked down by a female driver. The impact of the hit was so heavy that despite being rushed immediately to the hospital, he died as a result of the bleeding from his head.
Jimmy’s death brought to my memory a similar tragedy I once shared on this same page about the death of another young man even though his death occurred differently. According to the story, Damian Williams (not real name), his wife and their one year and six months old daughter were heading to a wedding ceremony church on a sunny Sunday morning in their black Lexus Jeep.
He stopped by a bank to make a withdrawal for an offering. After parking his car at a spot, he believed was safe enough, Damian crossed over to the other side of the road, made his withdrawal at the ATM before crossing back to his vehicle parked at the other side. He got into his car but before he could start his car and move, a Toyota Hilux lost control and crashed onto their Jeep. Damian, who was anxiously waiting to lavish his wife on their third-year marriage anniversary just a few weeks ahead, died on the spot while his wife went into coma and was unconscious for two days before she eventually regained consciousness. Miraculously, their daughter who was strapped to a car seat behind came out unhurt-she was found just the way she was- strapped.
I know that there are other cases across other parts of the country but what is clear is that a lot of people who claim to be drivers are really not one. A good number are learner drivers who rather than allow the process of maturing as a driver would rather cut short the process in order to show off like others. I wrote about this in a piece I titled learners or lunatics for which some readers responded with insults for my choice of words. I hope to run that piece in a fortnight to freshen our minds again. But while I maintain that a measure of insanity has taken over our roads, I must also state here that there is a lot that is wrong with pedestrians and drivers irrespective of age or sex. For some drivers, it has to do with pride and ego as a handful would rather conceal their learner status and drive without their instructor as contained in the National Road Traffic Regulations. There is also the increasing traffic indiscipline which calls for stiffer penalties by traffic officers.
But while I lament this increasing development, I must note that pedestrians all over the world, including developed climes such as the United States of America, United Kingdom and others face similar risk of being knocked down. In the United State of America which I love to cite often on this page, pedestrian deaths are a great concern amid mounting signs that pedestrians and drivers are dangerously distracted. Although reasons for the recent rise have not been scientifically proven, smartphones and marijuana use are suspected key factors. According to Richard Retting, director of safety for Sam Schwartz Consulting, “People outside cars are dying at levels we haven’t seen in 25 years. “This increase in pedestrian death is coming despite improvements in vehicle safety such as the recent introduction of automatic emergency braking systems, rear-view cameras and collision-alert technology.
A study by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has identified poor headlights as a problem while poor design and failure to adopt lights that swivel with the curvature of the road are hurting especially at night. Despite these identified challenges experts say that pedestrians are sometimes to blame, as well. While it is okay to state that we have a handful of distracted drivers, I must also state again and again that we also have a handful of distracted pedestrians who are also not even literate on how to use the road. What we see daily on our roads are people both behind the wheel and walking in the street failing to take responsibility for their behaviour by learning to walk or drive without using the phone. Even okada and tricycle riders have joined the bandwagon
In the case of the United State of America, increased use of marijuana was identified as another potential factor causing the increase in deaths. I know we are battling with increasing drug cases with the use of codeine being a concern here in our clime. Only a study will unravel the number of traffic deaths that could be drug related similar to the development in America. The report from America shows that in the seven states that legalized the drug for recreational purposes, as well as the District of Columbia, pedestrian deaths witnessed a rise. At the same time, deaths in other states witnessed a reduction. Meanwhile the craze for big, gas-guzzling SUVs has not only affected the environment, but led to more fatal road accidents, the study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety noted. The insurance research study equally noted that pedestrian fatalities were also increasingly likely to involve powerful cars, which, it says, suggests speeding was a factor.
Still in the case of the US, the increased fatal road traffic crashes occurred mostly in urban and suburban areas where SUVs are mostly driven and during dark hours on busy roads, like arterials, without proper pedestrian crossings. SUVs, pickups and vans we must note here which has also become the craze in Nigeria according to a study are linked to a higher risk of death or severe injury to pedestrians. The study notes that these vehicles have higher and often more vertical front ends than cars and are more likely to strike a pedestrian in the head or chest thus making crashes involving pedestrians both deadlier and more frequent in places where they predominate. This is why experts opine that improvements in road design, vehicle design and lighting and speed limit enforcement are crucial road safety interventions.
