To ensure the safety of lives and property, the Lagos State Government has restricted daytime movement of tankers and articulated vehicles. But, the operators have risen up against the government, absolving themselves of blame in the accidents that have killed many residents. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE and OLALEKAN AYENI report.
Picture for a minute a container falling from a height. Imagine the fate of whatever it may fall on. This is no fiction. On Ojuelegba bridge, a container, latched to a trailer fell on a Sport Utility Van (SUV) underneath the flyover. All three occupants were killed. It was a depressing sight to behold. The government acted fast to stem the recklessness of drivers of articulated vehicles on Lagos raods.
Containerised trucks and petroleum tankers accounted for half of the over 200 deaths recorded in the third quarter of the year. The rising wave of accidents involving articulated vechicles cannot but be a worrisome trend to any goverment.
To stem the scourge, the Lagos State government slammed a daytime ban of heavy-duty trucks and tankers. It restricted their movement from 6am to 9pm.
Old wine, new bottle
But, the law itself is not new, being one of the extant laws of the state. The immediate past administration enforced it somewhat between 2008 and 2009 but soft-pedalled on its enforcement in its second term.
The Akinwunmi Ambode administration is dusting up the law to reduce road carnage. Those who flout the regulations risk the seizure of their vehicles or the payment of fines, or both.
The government’s determination to enforce the law with the support of the security and road management agencies has unsettled the operators. Rising from the State Security Council meeting, Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni said his men would strictly enforce the law.
His declaration triggered a protest by drivers, who went on strike action to protest the directive.
Though the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), have since returned to work and complying with the regulation by staying off the road, truck/trailer drivers operating from the ports have refused all entreaties to resume work as at last weekend.
They vowed not to return to work because the restriction has imperilled their lives and the safety of the cargoes they carry.
Their stance is already raising the blood pressure of importers whose goods are being delayed by the impasse.
Pleas and arguments
The operators are calling on the government to rescind its decision. They claimed the order did not consider the security of the drivers and the safety of their cargoes. They alleged that the drivers are attacked at night by armed robbers, miscreants who steam their goods and vehicles.
Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot Owners and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and their counterpart in the containerised business, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), urged the government to reverse the order for the security of their drivers and the products they are conveying across the country.
AMATO’s National President ‘Remi Ogungbemi said the security of the drivers and the products are not guaranteed at night.
The insecurity, Ogungbemi added, is worsened by the deplorable road conditions across the country.
He urged Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to consider these factors and roll back the restriction order to enable articulated vehicle drivers like other motorists enjoy their profession like other colleagues at day time and without harm.
The AMATO chief also challenged the Federal Government to encourage operators by facilitating loans to acquire new vehicles instead of relying on importing fairly used, most of which are rickety.
This, he said, will make the phasing out of aging trucks by the union and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) easy.
The operators also demanded a park for trailers/tankers, adding that drivers will be discouraged from night trips if they decent accommodation to pass the night. According to Ogungbemi, stress and fatigue contribute immensely to accidents.
“A parking space will among other benefits, guarantee access to the FRSC, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and other security agencies to inspect vehicles before allowing them to proceed on their journey,” he said.
The PTD National Vice Chairman, Mr Solomon Kilanko, challenged the Lagos State Government to tackle menace of hoodlums and miscreants (Area boys) who have turned themselves to lords of the roads before enforcing the order.
He said it will amount to double jeopardy if the drivers, who deserves to be protected by the government are exposed to danger from hoodlums, who lurk in the dark to attack them and hijack their vehicles and goods.
Kilanko said: “Bad roads and threats of attacks at night make the new directive more harmful than helpful to drivers.”
MOMAN’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said major marketers will strengthen the training and retraining of their drivers on safety standards as part of measures to reduce incessant accidents.
Expressing concern over the spate of accidents, Olawore pledged the association’s readiness to improve the checking of both mechanical and human factors of their members, right from the loading point to complement FRSC efforts.
The Secretary, Depot Owners Association of Nigeria (DOAN), Dr Mark Anamali, said the association will ensure the phasing out of rickety vehicles before the end of the year.
A medical doctor, Ibiyemi Olusoji, said the order restricting movement of articulated drivers to night travels will cause more harm than good as fatigued drivers on long distance trips are most likely to fall asleep on the wheels and crash.
“Ordinarily, the night is designed for sleep. A driver who is banned from moving at daytime and did not rest till he starts his trip at night, won’t be able to get to Ibadan, Oyo State, before fatigue will set in and this could cause accident,” Olusoji said.
A safety expert and founder of Safety Without Borders (SWB), a non-government organisation, Mr Patrick Adenusi, faulted the directive barring tracks’ movement within the metroplis.
According to him, the order has inadvertently tagged truck drivers as the cause of accidents.
For him, as part of investigations meant to curtail accidents, truck drivers, rather than being vilified, ought to be questioned on the challenges they face in the discharge of their duties.
Listing the excesses of Area Boys as “a major unidentified cause” of road accidents, Adenusi, said: “These boys swoop on a truck drivers and demand for payment, as if such fees are sacrosanct. If the driver refused, these boys will go behind the driver and remove the air hose, which controls the braking system and once this happens, the drivers, in trying to avoid being attacked by the boys, will accelerate and if they get to a point where the break must be applied and the brake fails, of course what you have are accidents.
“Most times, we do not talk to the truck drivers. We need to talk to them, we need to know, as only this will ndicate our readiness to stop accidents.”
Adenusi equally advocated for aggressive driving education among Nigerians.
Describing Nigerian drivers as “ the most unruly around the world,” Adenusi said that statistics have shown that over 90 per cent of Nigerian drivers are “grossly indisciplined.”
In Nigeria, less than 10 per cent of drivers keep to their lanes and this violation has been identified as a major cause of accidents.
He said: “Imagine a reckless driver swerving in front of a fuel-laden trailer, or a loaded containerised trailer, any attempt to avoid such sudden swerve could be disastrous but that carnage could have been avoided, if every driver had been fully sensitised about responsible driving.
“It is standard global practice, that you keep to your lane when you are on a single-lane, if you are going on two lanes, you stay on the second lane and if you are travelling on the three-lane road, you stay on the third lane. But, here in Nigeria, you see drivers changing lanes indiscriminately without any consideration for the other road users.”
Truck owners should also share in the blame as many of them hardly maintain their vehicles. “It is left to imagination what can begin to happen if the law is imlemented to the letter by the state government, in an environment where more than 60 per cent of the articulated vehicles drive without head lamps and and without spare tyres. The smokes some of these trucks emit into the environment are harzardous.”
Restriction, no solution
Adenusi and others believe that the restriction cannot be solution to the endless roads crashes involving articulated vehicles.
Citing other parts of the world where all manners of vehicles were allowed to make use of the road at all times, the SWB chief said the law could be contested as it precludes the right of some certain group of people who are professionals in their own right to safety, a right, which the government duly owes them as citizens.
He argued: “If we say trucks can’t move on Lagos roads at daytime, what happens to those trucks carrying sands to and from the Eko Atlantic City, most of which plies the Western Avenue route at daytime?”
“Let the government tackle the menace called Area boys, and you are likely to see a dramatic reduction in the rate of accidents, especially the ones involving trailers and heavy-duty trucks.”
Adenusi called for the declaration of emergency on the state of road network in the country. He noted that a good road network will bring about reduction in road crashes.
He urged the Federal Government to revisit the service lane on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, saying that most drivers take alternative roads like the Western Avenue because the truck road is bad.
“If this lane, which has collapsed is fixed, it will reduce the stress on the alternative routes and this will result in a reduction in road accidents”, he added.
