The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Traffic

  • Simple solutions to an annoying Lagos traffic

    It is no news that Lagos is constantly bedeviled with chronic gridlocks ( traffic ) in our major roads. This sorry traffic situation may further be aggravated if solutions are not urgently proffered, especially with our ever increasing population.

    Many states in Nigeria are also faced and fazed with the myriad traffic problems which seems to constantly flout various remedial measure adopted by different governments over the years – Lagos is no exception.

    Areas like Mushin, Iyana-Ipaja and other urban areas where motorcycles ply frequently, constantly encounter gridlocks as result of drivers (especially motorcyclists) taking one-way, thereby causing serious “go slow”.

    Transiting from one location to another is usually a heck of an experience, especially when passengers and drivers alike have to literally spend the whole day in traffic for what should have ordinarily been a journey of minutes or even a few hours.

    Noise and air pollutions make the already bad and pitiable journey more inconvenient.

    Well, we can all cry blue murder about the annoying situation of vehicular movements in our dear state, however, the writer have been benevolent to give a few suggestions that could prove very invaluable to solving the perennial road congestion problems.

    1. Drivers should be encouraged and if possible forced to become more literate in traffic and road regulations.
    2. Bad and unsafe roads should not be left too long before they fixed and not just patched with inferior materials.
    3. Government should strengthen its agencies more to tackle and enforce some of its laws pertaining traffic laws.
    4. States and federal agencies of government need to collaborate more with respect to traffic regulations.
    5. Cars and vehicles that are no longer road worthy should be either fixed or totally removed from our roads.

    Illegal parking of vehicles (especially trucks and trailers) on our major road should be discouraged and perpetrators punished.

  • Dangers of driving against traffic

    Over the years, lots of men and women, young and old, have been killed or maimed by vehicle owners moving against the traffic.

    This offence of driving against the traffic is more common when there is heavy traffic is more common when there is heavy traffic on one lane, thereby prompting the impatient and disobedient drivers or riders to illegally divert to the lane of oncoming vehicles.

    Having seen the meaning of and cause of this offence, let us examine the psychology and consequences of the offence.

    When a person is following a routine overtime, it will be registered in his or her subconscious mind, thereby making it possible for him or her to perform that same task without giving much thought to it. For example, if a person has been moving around in a house for a while, he or she can move to several parts of the house even in the dark without stumbling because every nook and corner of the house is already registered in his subconscious mind.

    Similarly, when a road user’s mind is already made up about the direction of the traffic flow, he may not quickly think that a driver or Rider can drive or ride against the traffic even though he knows that there are divers and riders in the country. This is the reason many people have fallen victims of the offence of driving against the traffic.

    Driving against the traffic can result the following:

    • Crashes with oncoming vehicles who might not be expecting those driving against the traffic.
    • Confusion for other road users, who are scrambling to avoid having collision with the vehicles driving against the traffic.
    • Crushing of pedestrians who have gotten used to looking at only are traffic direction before crossing the road and those backing the traffic without expecting vehicles der be coming from behind. Most of the vehicle owners who drive against traffic are reckless. Most of them do hit-and-run.

    It is very disheartening that VIPs, police and other security officers are also guilty of this offence.

    Unless there is official diversion because of road construction, maintenance or obstruction, no one irrespective of his/her status should drive against the traffic.

    It is a form of traffic madness and this is one of the reasons the Lagos State Government in its traffic laws prescribed a psychiatry test for anyone that commits this offence of driving against the traffic in addition to paying the stipulated fine.

    I hereby recommend that the Federal Government through the Federal Road Safety Commission and the State Governments through their traffic management Agencies must stand firmly against this office and take every possible step to prevent it through enforcement with appropriate penalties and everyone that cause accident or kills as a result of driving against the traffic should be prosecuted and jailed.

    Where compromise is established between the Driver and the vehicle occupants is established, they should also be prosecuted with the Driver or Rider as the Case may be.

    Members of the public should also commence the habit of shouting at the offenders and snapping their vehicles with the number plates for direct reporting to the appropriate traffic management authorities and for posting on the social media as a way of curbing this destructive driving attitude which is currently pervading every part of the country no matter whose Ass is gored.

    It is a shameful thing that Nigerian is still one of the countries with the highest rate road traffic crashes and fatalities in the committee of nations. It has therefore become expedient for every possible step, no matter how Crude to be taken to drastically stem the very sad tide. A stitch in time saves nine.

     

  • 25 forfeit vehicles for driving against traffic

    25 forfeit vehicles for driving against traffic

    No fewer than 55 vehicles were impounded yesterday by  Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Taskforce)  operatives around Adekunle Fajuyi Road, GRA Ikeja.

    They were accused of driving against traffic and causing obstruction to motorists driving towards the railway line at Shogunle.

    Their owners were arraigned before Magistrate Lateef Owolabi and Magistrate Patrick Uwaka of the Lagos State Mobile Court sitting at Oshodi.

    The vehicles were impounded for contravening Schedule (1) Item 27 of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law of 2012.

    A statement by the task force said 25 of the vehicles  had been forfeited to the  government.

    Also yesterday,  two officials of Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), Bukola Fadare and Adeola Olamide, were  injured in Ojuwoye Mushin.

    They were attacked by some Okada riders and area boys over the task force’s raid of the area.

    The injured are in the hospital.

    Deputy Corps Marshal (Operations), LAGESC, Ganiyu Kazeem, said the agency’s  Green Maria stationed at Mushin was attacked by hoodlums around 9:30am.

    Kazeem said: “My personnel did not know that the task force just finished raiding the area. They were attacked by Okada riders and area boys in the area. They stoned one of my drivers and injured another. We are not doing any operation; we were just victims of the retaliation in the area.”

    LAGESC Public Affairs Officer Rahmat Alabi, in a statement,  said  the task force had earlier arrested some Okada riders on Isolo road, opposite Total Filling Station, Mushin.

    She said: “The remaining Okada riders and some area boys regrouped for reprisal but unfortunately, the LAGESC operatives ran into them and were pounced upon violently such that two of LAGESC officers were seriously wounded in the attack.

    “Fadare (driver) and Olamide (Deputy Unit Head) who sustained serious injury have been rushed to the Safety Arena Medical Centre for First Aid treatment. The Green Maria operational vehicle marked KRD-624DS with LAGESC tag no 038 was damaged beyond recognition. It was a LASEMA towing vehicle that brought it down to our office.”

    Task force Chairman Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Superintendent of Police (SP),  said his men went on enforcement, on non-compliance with the  traffic laws and two bikes were apprehended and pulled out.

    “The Okada riders and area boys attacked LAGSEC officials. A driver was injured; he lost control and ran into two cars. The vehicles were smashed. They wanted to burn the vehicles and kill the driver. We had to rescue those trapped. We had finished our enforcement but those in the area were angry over our enforcement and it was a transfer of aggression on the LAGESC operatives.”

  • Photospeak: LASTMA officials evacuate fallen truck

    Photospeak: LASTMA officials evacuate fallen truck

    Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency ( LASTMA ) on Friday morning started the evacuation of a loaded truck that fell to its side.

    The loan accident, according to LASTMA social media post, happened at the early hours of Friday at Cement Bus Stop inward Dopemu under bridge axis of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

    The unexpected incident has compounded the traffic of motorists  on the road as drivers are therefore advised to use alternative roads while the evacuation lasts.

    Photos Below from LASTMAsocial:

    LASTMA at work LASTMA at work LASTMA at work

    LASTMA at work

  • Traffic tales

    Hardball has an idea — traffic tales!  Now, what do you think that is?

    Well, it is certainly tales about the traffic.  And if traffic is about vehicles and their drivers, including the ubiquitous Okada riders — traffic laws be damned! — it is certainly about what these drivers do or don’t do on the road.

    But while you probably would take a denotative view of all these road exploits, Hardball is taking a connotative view.  Want to take a sneak into the mind of a nation?  Then rivet your eyes on the behavioural pattern of its traffic.  Got the gist now?

    Imagine, you are driving, a law-abiding citizen; and a fellow road user just zooms at you from the opposite direction, flashing impatiently and totting on his horns.  Well, there is a fuel station which he is trying to enter and your car, on your legit lane, seems a nuisance on the way.  All the flashing and all the totting scream a single message: get the hell out of the way, you scum!

    Now, what do you do?  Scurry out of the way?  Or call his bluff by ignoring him, and seriously praying his brake is okay, so he won’t bash into your car, after a brake failure?  You probably act, according to your mindset, at that exact moment.

    Familiar, isn’t it?  Well, that unruly traffic behaviour just shows a good number of Nigerians — perhaps a majority, though there are not stats from studies to back up that claim — are simply indecorous, hasty and resort to insults, when they could simply have asked nicely.

    Again, look at your terrain, what do you observe?  A serpentine traffic, with a gridlock of truckers and tanker drivers staking their constitutionally given, not to talk of God-divined, right to inflict pains and make your day a hell on earth.

    Before you know it, a container has fallen upon a fellow road user, crushing a whole family.  Other nearby cars only escape by the whiskers.  Pronto, lucky to be alive (its Hobbes’s jungle, after all!), they scurry to the church and give testimonies on their great escape!  Not without reasons though: for far too many have perished in such wilful accidents, and seeming no action was taken, that they simply became statistics.

    Now, from this chaotic traffic, what sort of people are these?

    Peculiar people whose governments make laws but don’t have the guts to enforce their own laws.  And a minority of citizens that commit wilful crimes, yet insist on their right to such fatal wilfulness (fatal to the victims, but morbid trophies to the perpetrators), and go on to inflict even more tragedies.

    That is the sorry tale of Nigeria today.  Right now, Lagos groans under a heavy traffic; and the tormentors-in-chief are trailer drivers who have simply decided to call the bluff of the law.  And what does the government do?  Not exactly looking askance (though that seems what it is).  The last time Hardball heard, the government was trying to “negotiate” with these traffic outlaws.  But while the demonstration goes on, stress has reached a boiling point, with everyone seeming to be trapped and helpless.

    Nigeria’s traffic tales reveal a somewhat sub-human community, where traffic outlaws do as they damn wish and government appears scared to apply its own laws, even if that is what decent climes do!

  • Agro exporters lose $25m to Apapa traffic

    • seek refund of excess charges from APMT

    Traffic congestion along Apapa Ports link roads is costing agro exporters approximately $25 million in losses in productivity, following delay in shipment. Last year, cashew export provided revenue of $253 million to the economy.

    The figure is expected to dip with exporters struggling to access the ports. This is despite the fact that cashew exporters this year increased annual volume meant for export to 170, 000 metric tons from 160,000 tons.

    Publicity Secretary, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Mr. Sotonye Anga said the farmers have cultivated more land with a view to boosting exports to raise annual earnings. He said this was not going to be possible with traffic challenges.

    Speaking after a news conference in Lagos yesterday, Anga said traffic congestion increased the time each vehicle spends on the road as cargo meant for exports now spend an average of seven days on the road.

    He said exports have   grown in the last two years due to surging demand in United States and Europe but the industry has not got a  boost in terms of improvement in storage and transport facilities.

    President, NCAN, Tola Fasheru said agro exporters  have   suffered wastages of  commodities  due to inadequate cold storage, supply chain infrastructure and  delayed transportation time to Apapa ports.

    Despite the hardship, Faseru  said a  terminal  operator, APMT  has increased its terminal charges.

    He said APMT increased its charges from N4000 to N40,000 for 20 ft. containers, and  N6,000 to N60,000 for a40 ft. containers.

    “This is an  increase of almost 1000 per cent. All the excess collections should be refunded back to exporters.This increase is not supportive of the economic diversification of the Federal Government,” he said.

    Because of the  challenge of getting access to the port, Faseru said an exporter that can ship 1,700 tons of commodities per day when the Apapa port access roads  were in good condition now manages to only ship between 100 to 25 tons of commodities  which he lamented is bad for business. “Our drivers are idling away on Apapa road, waiting in their trucks for as long as seven days to get into the port as against four hours,” he said.

    Faseru urged the government to expedite work on the repairs of the road to prevent  lost time and productivity.

  • Motorists groan in Apapa-Wharf traffic

    Motorists groaned yesterday as the Apapa-Wharf Roads was clogged because of fuel loading at private depots in the area.

    A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent observed that the gridlock forced some motorists to abandon their cars and walk to their destinations.

    A motorist, Mr Tunde Adigun, told NAN that the traffic had been terrible since the beginning of the week.

    “Since Tuesday, the traffic jam has been terrible, and sometimes it is practically a standstill.

    “The last time we saw traffic like this was in July. This week, when the tankers reappeared on this road, it has resurfaced, and till now it has not relented,’’ Adigun said.

    He appealed to the state government to relocate tank farms from Apapa, suggesting that fuel tankers should be loaded at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depots instead of the private depots.

    NAN reports that the depots on Apapa/Wharf roads include MRS Oil and Gas, Nipco Oil and Gas, Ateo Oil Ltd., Techno Oil and Gas, Mobil Oil and Gas, Folawiyo Oil and Gas, Oando Oil and Gas, and Conoil Oil and Gas.

    Depots on Coconut/Apapa Road axis include Capital Oil and Gas, Sahara Oil and Gas, Integrated Oil and Gas, Eternal Oil and Gas, Total Oil and Gas, Acorn Oil and Gas, Obat Oil Petroleum, Aquitaine Oil Ltd., and Spog Oil Nig. Ltd.

    South-West Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo blamed the gridlock petroleum loading in the area.

    Korodo said the tanker drivers returned to Apapa and Coconut Road because they were not getting adequate petroleum products all the NNPC deposts.

    According to him, NNPC depots in the South-West are in Ejigbo, Mosinmi and Ibadan, but they only operate skeletal loading.

    “Recently, when NNPC commenced loading of products at its Ejigbo and Ibadan depots, most of the tankers relocated to the place to load.

    “During this period, there was no gridlock of petroleum tankers along Ijora/Apapa/Wharf Road; the only tankers plying there were those of major oil marketers located in the area.

    “Only articulated vehicles going to Wharf were causing traffic, but now that loading is low and some of them are not getting the products as expected, they have returned to their base,’’ he said.

  • Kaduna traffic agency sacks 124 marshals

    The Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Authority (KASTELEA) has sacked 124 marshals for various misconducts, it was learnt yesterday.

    The General Manager, Abdulkadir Ahmed, in a statement at the weekend, said some of the marshals were found wanting for extortion, while others absconded from their duty posts.

    “Of the 124 marshals, one was dismissed for extortion, another one for gross misconduct, while 122 others were relieved of their appointments for absconding from their duty posts,” he said.

    Ahmed said the termination of the appointments followed all laid down procedures, as prescribed in the Terms and Condition of Service (TACOS) of the authority.

    According to him, the move was part of the agency’s effort at repositioning the agency. “The management has given the sacked marshals two weeks to return all KASTELEA property in their possession, failure of which will attract severe sanctions,” the statement added.

  • TRACE warns against obstructing traffic

    The Ota division of Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) has warned commercial drivers against picking and dropping off passengers on the road, especially at the Tollgate/Sango, Ogun State axis of the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway, thereby obstructing traffic.

    Divisional Commander Adekunle Ajibade said the Corps would increase its partnership with the police, military and other paramilitary groups to ensure that causes of crashes along the axis were curbed. He added that any driver caught disobeying traffic laws will be prosecuted.

    Ajibade addressed reporters in his office. He was reacting to the death, last week, of an hawker at Ota. Four others were injured in the accident.

    According to him, a diesel truck (KRD 755 XH) coming from Ota suffered a brake failure and rammed into a yellow  bus (APP 295 XT) and a tricycle (TTD 318 VV).

    The hawker was pinned to a vehicle why trying to run to safety. The truck driver would have maneuvered his way, had the road been free, he added.

    Ajibade urged traders and hawkers to leave to the road to ensure the free flow of traffic. “Obey traffic rules for your safety,” he pleaded.

  • Ambode’s traffic enforcers

    Ambode , ‘Nigeria’s alpha governor’ (apology to Sam Omatseye,) as worthy successor to his trail-blazing predecessors has in the last one and half years continued to validate the over 2000 years old Plato’s thesis that those best equipped to manage society are the philosopher kings.  His preparation through acquisition of relevant training from the best schools across the world has shown in the quality of leadership he has so far offered the good people of Lagos. When many of us shortly after his assumption office urged him to cage danfo drivers and Okada riders who wanted to take his government hostage following false hopes they received from defeated PDP, he in what has become the style of his administration, took time to study the problem before arriving at his own unassailable position which was that even animals with appropriate approach could be tamed. He shortly afterwards inaugurated his Lagos traffic law aimed at taming those who “engage in flagrant disregard or violation of traffic rules with impunity; break traffic rules at will and cause needless traffic snag, drive against traffic and beat the traffic lights, destroy traffic furniture and infrastructure, drive across the road median and through their lawlessness and irresponsible actions, daily inflict pains, grieve and sorrow on fellow citizens.”

    The reservation of some, including yours truly  as expressed on these pages on September 1, 2016 was that“ some of the penalties for some of the 11 new laws which range from  “three years imprisonment without option of fine for ‘One-Way’ driving;  a fine of N50,000 or three years imprisonment, or both; for abandoning vehicle on highway; a fine of N20,000 for riding Motorcycle against traffic, or without crash helmet and smoking while driving ,etc can neither achieved the intended objectives – whether deterrence or to raise revenues for the state – because such stiff penalties provided enough incentives for exploitation of victims by those saddled with implementation of the laws.

    My encounter with some touts pretending as traffic law enforcers about a 100 yards after the Mile 12 bridge and my over one hour observation at their Ikorodu yard for ‘haggling and bargaining’ convinced me beyond any doubt that some of the touts are on the road for other reasons other than the  Governor Ambode’s above stated objectives

    I had overtaken a wobbling truck in front of me as I descended the Mile 12 bridge towards Ikorodu, at about 8.30 a.m last Thursday. There emerged within seconds, two stick-wielding touts and two policemen menacingly pointing their guns at my car. As I rolled down the window of the passenger’s seat to find out what was happening, one of the two boys forced himself into the back seat while one of the policemen still with his gun cocked eased himself into the front seat. I was accused of taking the BRT lane. Shocked, I asked why any sane person at that hour of the morning when an Ikorodu inward motorist driving against the traffic can see as far as 500 yards ahead opt to take a BRT lane. I called their attention to over 10 vehicles that did exactly what I did-(overtake a vehicle) while we were arguing inside my car. They however insisted I must follow them to their Ikorodu office.

    At the Ikorodu office located behind TOS Benson Estate, I was taking before the head of the traffic task force, a young man of about 28. I told him his boys were up to some mischief as I did not commit any offence. After collecting my key, he then took time to explain to me that the portion of the road after the Mile 12 bridge spanning a distance of about 100 yards was marked with two solid lines and that once a motorist tyres pass over that portion, an offence has been committed. His verdict was that I was guilty as charged and would have to go and pay fine in Oshodi before returning to retrieve my impounded car. As he left me standing in the scorching sun along with scores of other victims I met there, he announced openly to no one in particular but for the benefit of all that the fine was N50,000 and those who are not satisfied have the option of going to court.

    After about 30 minutes in the hot sun, the policeman who had earlier forced his way into my car came to advice I introduce myself to the young man. Defeated and deflated, I did, appealing to him to educate unsuspecting motorists like us who obtained our driving license some 50 years back on the relevance of two solid lines on a portion of a road shared by BRT buses and other motorists. Besides I told the chief traffic law enforcer that I was slated to deliver a lecture at 10am in a nearby university. He asked me to go and wait by my car while he consulted with his key men and some policemen under a shed. Shortly afterwards, he came as promised, returned my car key and asked me to go. And when I told the touts manning the gate who insisted on collecting a gate fees of N500 that I had no money left on me except I looked for an ATM around, he graciously came down to open the gate to let me out .

    As I drove out of the place, what was on mind was not the lecture that was already one hour behind schedule. I was overwhelmed with a sense of shame and guilt. Many of those I left inside the burning sun trying to haggle and bargain their way out  trouble because they could not ‘introduce themselves’ as I did are probably victims like me with their day and plan ruined. I felt a further sense of shame that I could not suddenly transform myself into a Femi Falana and fight for the rights and dignity of those with  forlorn long look on their faces who by looking at me as I drove out Ikorodu yard of ‘haggling and bargaining’, I subconsciously believe were indeed accusing of betrayal.

    The pangs of pain increased with the realization that some traffic offence enforcers and their police accomplices who hide at obscure portions of the road to arrest unsuspecting road users who had no incentive whatsoever for BRT lane violation will return to their families with bountiful returns at the end of the day in good conscience. Stiff penalties from which only few thinking animals will not try to haggle and bargain himself from only serve as additional incentive for the sadistic enforcers who set up innocent people for a contrived offence in Mile 12, dragging them to Ikorodu where their vehicles are impounded while they find their way by public transport to Oshodi to pay fine before returning for their vehicles.

    Here is an enlightened Governor Ambode working hard to tame some products of social dislocations in the urban centres while those saddled with executing his noble objective exhibit even worse base instincts than those Ambode set out to reform.

    Ikorodu ‘haggling and bargaining’ yard is only symptomatic of what is going on all over Lagos State where danfo drivers routinely take BRT lane on even  the ever busy Ikorodu Road as in many other places and okada riders ride against traffic unmolested.