The death caused by trailers and tankers has become a worrisome situation which needs to be critically examined. The high rate of road accidents in the country has attracted global concern. It is disheartening to say that Nigerian roads have been adjudged the most dangerous in Africa.
It was a gory scene at Ojuelegba on the 2nd of August 2015 as a container of a truck fell off the bridge and landed on two cars, killing over five people including a couple. I shed tears as I watched the container being lifted off the scene alongside the ambulance that bore the corpses. Less than forty eight hours after the incident, another 40-feet container fell along the Ikorodu-Sagamu Expressway, precisely at Winners bus stop located between Lagos State Polytechnic and Jubilee Estate in Ikorodu, Lagos State.
In the last five years, the spate of fatal road mishaps around the country, especially in Lagos, has made thousands of families bereaved. In retrospect, I can recall with despair how tragedy struck at the Ojota area of Lagos State on 22nd February 2011. A truck carrying a container fell on a Hyundai jeep, crushing the sole occupant to death. On the 23rd of January 2012, a bus coming from Lagos towards Ore in Ondo State killed over nineteen persons as a trailer collided with a commercial bus, leaving several people injured. The same year, a lady was crushed to death at Berger area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway by a container after it fell from a moving trailer. On the 19th of November 2013 along the Lekki-Epe Expressway, a tanker knocked off a Spots Utility Van which led to the death of two school pupils who were on the pavement after they had crossed the road. The driver was said to have been drunk.
On the 5th of April 2015, a truck coming from Tin-Can Island, was entering the service lane at Berger Yard bus stop on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway when the driver lost control and the container fell off a truck and killed a woman, leaving some people seriously injured. On the 7th of June 2015, a container fell off a truck and landed on an Eko Meat van along the Agege Motor Road, Ikeja, Lagos, leading to the death of an unsuspecting male passer-by identified as a manager in Slot Nigeria. One cannot forget the horrific death of twelve Olabisi Onabanjo University students which occurred on the 26th of June 2015. The students were crushed to death by a container which fell from the truck along Lagos-Benin expressway as the load tipped and dropped freely atop the roof of the bus, pinning the bus to the ground.
Several reports by different agencies have been published on thousands of deaths that have occurred on Nigerian roads. One question we need to answer is whether we should keep counting the deaths or to look at the remote causes with a view to proffering solutions.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with a report on road safety, stating that Nigeria accounts for the highest fatalities with 33.7 percent per 100,000 population every year in Africa. It added that road accident is the third leading cause of death in Nigeria. According to world ranking, Nigeria is still rated second globally on road accidents, despite the increasing efforts by government agencies aimed at ensuring that crashes are reduced on our highways and safety principles such as speed limit and obedience to traffic rules are strictly adhered to. Many a times when these accidents occur, all we do is wail at the pathetic narrative until another one strikes. With these statistics, is it wise to keep siting and wallow in bemoaning the tragic fate of the nation on road mishaps? Nigeria should not keep ranking number one in all negative statistics: corruption, crime, terrorism, accident and so on. This is the time for swift action to stem the tide.
It is evident that the rate of truck and trailer accidents can be linked to excessive speeding, driving against traffic, disobedience to traffic regulations and rickety nature of most vehicles on the road. Most of these trucks are usually in a state of disrepair, with malfunctioning brakes, incomplete head light, and others who are not even road-worthy. Many of them are not conversant with the traffic rules. From their behaviours, it is clear that most of them need to undergo psychiatric evaluation to ensure they are in their right frame of minds before driving entering the road. Most of them indulge in high alcohol consumption, making their minds unstable with blurred vision in the face of dilapidated roads in the country.
According to personal investigations, no single driver or trailer owner has been prosecuted for criminal negligence and gross dereliction of responsibility. It won’t be wrong to say that corruption is also a factor behind these mishaps. There is need for gross examination and enlightenment campaigns on containing accident rates in the country to reduce the avoidable loss of lives. There should be adequate surveillance of our highways by road safety officials.
There is need to pay utmost attention to roads where heartrending deaths have been recorded in recent times. There is need for renewed strategies in regulatory frameworks to ensure the seamless operation of motorists and curtail the excesses of truck drivers to reduce road accidents.
I urge that, together with the security agencies on ground, the government should double its effort in ensuring that relevant laws are implemented and drastic measure to call defaulters to book are instituted. A body could be set up to regulate the conditions and inanities of truck drivers on our roads. With these, Nigeria could be on its way to reversing the ugly trend of road mishaps in the country.
- Modestus is a graduate of OOU, Ago-Iwoye
