Many newspapers on Saturday, September 16, carried front page stories on the harrowing killing of 30 Nigerians in a head-on collision between two commercial commuter buses which occurred in the night on Thursday, September 14 along the Lagos – Ibadan expressway. The dead were 20 males and 10 females, all adults, according to Cyril Mathew, the Oyo State Head of Operations of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). They left their homes hale and hearty, paid to be transported, safely, to their destinations only to have their lives brutally terminated in a mangled mix of metal and flesh by homicidal drivers. The drivers of the two buses, one coming from Lagos, the other from Ibadan, were said to have diverted to the closed lane section at a construction site and were over speeding at the time of the collision, about 8.30 in the night. Yet we term it ‘road accident’. This is a misnomer. It is more appropriately a matter of culpable vehicular homicide.
On September 2, many newspapers also carried front page story of 21 persons killed in vehicular homicides in Ogun and Edo states, made up of 13 adults – 10 males, three females – and eight children. They, too, never reached their destinations, leaving friends and relations in tears and sorrow. Vehicular killings on Nigerian roads have left many families devastated and ruined the prospects of lives of many children as adults are the preponderant victims of such killings on the roads. There was the case of a man who lost his son, a first class graduate in petroleum engineering, who had just finished his NYSC year, in the crash of a so-called luxurious bus en route Lagos from Port Harcourt, who never recovered from the shock. The distraught father died in May this year and was buried on June 2. There are many families today going through traumatic agonies arising from the loss of their loved ones and breadwinners to homicidal drivers. The risk of premature death on Nigerian roads is so high that people now often engage in prayer session at the commencement of a journey, handing over their lives to God for safe arrival, and with shouts of Hallelujah on arrival at destination. In spite of the huge loss in lives and property arising from deaths on the roads, FRSC officials treat road tragedies as just events in a day’s work, the media report them generally as mere statistics, hardly humanizing the victims, thereby numbing the populace to a kind of fatalism. Hence, no public outrage.
The insensitivity of FRSC officialdom to the road carnage was demonstrated by the commission’s spokesman, Bisi Kazeem, who in reacting to the latest Lagos – Ibadan expressway tragedy attributed it to “route and speed violations” but added this rider : “This has further underscored the Corps Marshall, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi’s advice to motorists to avoid night journeys…and drive within approved speed limits”.
Advising motorists – and people, by extension – to avoid night journeys begs the issue and shows a rather pedestrian understanding of the key role of safe highways as arteries of the economy for a 24-hour movement of persons, goods and products and a major factor in promoting night economy. Anyway, horrible road carnage also occur in day time. Lunatic drivers constitute the major danger on Nigerian highways, not necessarily the poor state of the roads. In fact, most of the horrendous road killings occur on good highways which induce drivers to excessive speeding. Statistics from FRSC support this view.
In the first quarter of 2017, figures from FRSC show that of the 2,556 road crashes between January and March, speed violation accounted for 1,308, representing 42.69 percent, followed by loss of control which recorded 390 incidents (12.73 percent); dangerous driving placed third with 225 cases ( 7. 34 percent ) while wrongful overtaking is sixth placed with 161 cases ( 5.25 percent). These four causes of deaths on the roads stand at 2,084 of the 2,556 cases and representing 68 percent, all attributable to drivers. Bad roads, which many would like to see as the main culprit is placed 15th with 25 instances ( 0.82 percent ) and another scapegoat – brake failure – only account for 163 cases, representing 5.32 percent and placing 5th in the 22-item hierarchy of causes of deaths on the roads. Consequent on the murderous disposition of drivers, 1,466 people lost their lives on the roads in the first quarter of this year made up 1,363 (93 percent) adults, 103 (7 percent) children, 1,164 (79 percent) males and 302 (21 percent) females. In 2016, a total of 5,053 people lost their lives, 3,970 being males and 1,083 females, according FRSC statistics. They are avoidable deaths but for the disregard for life by loony drivers.
From the above statistics, it becomes obvious that drivers constitute clear and present danger on the roads and should be so treated. They cannot and should not be allowed to continue to waste people’s lives without facing commensurate consequences. Homicide cases against drivers can be graduated, like in other cases of killings, from manslaughter to first degree vehicular homicide, the latter with no bail condition, for those who demonstrate demonic disposition on the road. For instance, a driver who drives against traffic in a built up area – township – at such terrific speed as to hit and kill someone on the spot, deserve no bail, and should face a first degree road homicide charge and on conviction be sentenced to life jail. He should not saunter home, on bail, and resume driving after just a day at the Police station. Commercial bus drivers are particularly an impossible set of people who do not listen to passengers’ complaints on their (drivers’) over speeding. Many truck drivers are a psychotic menace on the roads. What is confounding with regard to road rage in Nigeria, however, is that many owner-drivers are hardly better than commercial and truck drivers in their over speeding, reckless driving and wrongful overtaking. For instance, of the 5,093 vehicles involved in road crashes from January to March this year, 1,617 are private, 2,428 commercial, while government vehicles are five and three diplomatic vehicles. How family members and friends, as passengers in private vehicles, have been unable to restrain the dangerous driving of hired drivers or owner drivers when they should be aware that their lives are being put at risk mystifies me. Of course, there are some exceptions. There was this young mother of two who said she does not travel with her husband because of his refusal to stop over speeding. The young man, who drives a BMW car, bragged that he goes up to 160 kilometres per hour anytime he is travelling home to Benin!! He is a potential homicide case on the road.
The carnage on Nigerian roads has inflicted deep grief on many families across the land. The killing spree by lunatic drivers is un-abating and therefore demands draconian measure. An activist Federal Road Safety Commission can seek amendment to its enabling Act to address this persistent danger of killer drivers as well as being empowered to extract compensation for victims for criminal negligence of construction companies and vehicle owners. But then, this may be too much to expect from an FRSC that, over the years, has been unable to effect free traffic flow on the Lagos – Ibadan expressway, thereby subjecting motorists and commuters to harrowing gridlocks. Highways should be made happy ways.
- Dr. Olawunmi, is Senior Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State.
