While the nation is battling to curtail the volume of lives being taken through insurgency in the country, the volume of lives lost to road accidents in recent times is alarming, despite the claims of the government that the nation's roads have seen improvement under the present administration. All over the country, it is the same story.
n the last two weeks, stories of carnages on our roads have been a recurrent phenomenon in most of news media all over the country. It has assumed a dimension that its occurrence has become a common place just like the gory tales of killings in the northern part of the country. Of worrisome dimension to these carnages is the fact that the rate is on the increase daily thereby prompting the question of, 'who might be the next victim'?
Nigerian roads tend to be notorious for accidents during festive periods when lots of families and friends travel to see loved ones they had not seen in a long while. At such times, the roads are usually busy. It is common to find series of accidents at this peak period but when accident becomes a common place when the roads are not busy, it calls for attention. This is the situation in all parts of the country in recent times.
On February 6, no fewer than nine people died while 19 others were injured in a motor accident in Borno. The accident occurred when two commercial buses collided near Benishiekh along Damaturu-Maiduguri Highway. Report has it the tyre of one of the commercial buses burst, a development which made the driver to lose control and the bus eventually collided with another oncoming bus near Benishiekh about 65 kilometres away from Maiduguri.
On April 9 2013, an overloaded bus on a high speed crashed into a truck parked by the road side in the city of Kano. The bus was heading to Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe state and all the occupants died instantly.
On April 3 this year, 18 persons died in an accident which occurred along the Kwali-Gwagwalada road, Abuja. The FRSC said that nine others sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident. The injured victims were taken to the Gwagwalada Teaching Hospital for medical attention. According to the FRSC, 96 people, including 70 males, 16 females and 10 children were involved in the crash.
According to reports from the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC, that are taking the lives of the citizens with impunity.
In the last few years, no fewer than 70 persons have perished in a multiple road accident that occurred at Uromi Junction in Agbor along the ever busy Agbor-Asaba highway in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State. Just last week, a pregnant woman and seven other persons were confirmed dead in a road crash in Delta State. The accident occurred on the Asaba-Ibusa Road last Thursday. The pregnant woman and the others were said to be traveling in a 14-seater Toyota Hiace Bus, which rammed into a tipper.
Recently, the Osun State Command of the Federal Road Commission claimed that in January, 2013 alone, there were a total number of 13 cases of fatal road accidents while the total cases of auto crash for the month amounted to twenty six.
According to the State Sector Commander, Mr Imoh Etuk, 23 persons were killed within the month while 108 people were injured, making the total numbers of causalities to be 131.
Natural events such as poor visibility during harmattan and in the night, waterlogged roads and careless driving while rain is falling could also be responsible for hazards on the road.
Others include hurdles on the road such as debris, fallen trees, faded road signs and signs obscured by foliage, erection of bumps and illegal mounting of road blocks by security agents and other agencies of government.
However, the behaviour of the man behind the wheel is central to what happens on the highway. For sure, a drunkard cannot behave like a normal person and also someone that is too hasty may end up causing an accident on the road; an aggressive and selfish driver will end up causing havoc on the road.
Recently, the Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu said at a forum that Nigeria has the second highest road traffic accident fatalities among the 193 countries in the world adding that the trend was adversely affecting the health system in the country and hampering its attainment of Millennium Development Goals.
According to him "Road accidents have led to the death of men, women, boys and and even the unborn child, impact negatively on our ability to achieve the MDGs as most people are the youths"
The habit of road users also does not help matters as many of the drivers do not obey speed limits. This makes it difficult for drivers to control them whenever they are faced with danger.
Just last week, in what can be described as a weekend of horror, over 70 lives were consumed in a ghastly accident between Ugbogui village near Okada town in Ovia north east council area of Edo State and Ofosu in Ondo state.
It was a gory sight to behold as the bodies of innocent passengers were roasted in the fire that engulfed the two vehicles involved in the accident. LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that one of the trucks involved in the accident belonging to Dangote Group Limited carried bags of cement had a head on collision with the tanker loaded with fuel whose front tyre busted thereby forcing it to fall on to the luxurious bus loaded with over 57 passengers.
The tanker had burst into flames and in the process, enveloped all the other vehicles even as the occupants struggled amid wailings and cries for assistance that could not come from anybody because of the profuse smoke.
Prior to the death of these over 70 passengers last weekend, 18 persons whose identities are yet to be known were reportedly burnt to death while 16 passengers were seriously injured in a multiple accident involving an 18-seater-bus and other vehicles along the same road on the day this accident happened. According to reports, this one occurred because the 18 seater bus was trying to avoid the burning vehicles and in the process, ran into the bush and also caught fire instantly.
While speaking to leadership sunday, Mr Peter Odia, the Public Relations Officer of Osarodion Transport Company urged the government to commence aggressive campaigns on road safety saying "Most road users are ignorant of traffic rules and regulations"
"It is not just enough to put vehicle on the high ways without having the prerequisite training and permits as required by the law and if you asked me it is responsible for the carnage on our roads", he said.
It is the same story in Katsina State where road accident appeared to have become a common phenomenon. Recently, the state witnessed series of major accidents leading to the loss of several lives, of which many though others escaped but with serious injuries.
One of such accidents occurred at Bindawa local government area of the state. It involved a truck carrying 40 passengers and 15 cows from Baure town to Charanchi market (a local market in the state). leadership sunday learnt that the truck lost control and somersaulted into a large ditch. Eye witnesses confirmed that six persons died as a result while 25 others sustained various degrees of injuries.
FRSC's efforts at reducing road traffic crashes on highways
Speaking with the LEADERSHIP SUNDAY on the FRSC's modus operandi as regards road traffic crashes, the Oyo State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Corps Commander Godwin Ogagaoghene, said "We are in partnership with those in public and government to ensure that our job goes well.
"The Non-government Organisations (NGOs) have come to our assistance in ensuring that we offer safety services to the people. One of such was the collaboration with an NGO which provided over 500 crash helmets for us to give to the motorcyclist in the state. We are in the process of getting reflexive jackets.
Ogagaoghene added that the state government was being supportive especially with the establishment of a road traffic agency which is not in competition but in collaboration with the FRSC to ensure that roads in the state are safe from crashes.
"With regards to road traffic crashes, our modus operandi is to ensure that our roads are constantly patrolled to ensure that our presence is felt on the roads. When a crash occurs, within 10, 15 minutes, we are at the scene," he added.
According to him, the roads are patrolled during the day for about 18 hours starting from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm that is 12 hours.
On the FRSC's efforts to check the motorists' reckless driving, overtaking, overloading to prevent further accidents, the FRSC boss noted that recklessness cuts across all categories: motorists, especially the commercial drivers, have different degrees of recklessness.
He said that the commercial drivers cannot be reached at the workshop and other gatherings; therefore they go to them at their motor parks to enlighten and educate them. "We talk to them about the ills of the wrong use of the road for instance the danger on overloading, over speeding, even show them pictures and videos to buttress our argument and this goes a long way to enforce whatever we discuss with them.
"With the regard to the private drivers among them, we use the print media to ensure that our messages are delivered to this category of motorists." Apart from this, the FRSC boss said there was a special programme tagged "Operation Zero Tolerance" which was initiated by the FRSC headquarters which has been of tremendous help in the fight of wanton road crashes on the roads, saying that the corps had been able to check some of the crashes through the programme.
On measures to curb the excesses, the FRSC Boss, Delta State Command Mrs. Ada Ajenge blamed the increasing accident rates on the driving system of the drivers who in most cases, do not obey the traffic rules.
Saying that the Road Safety Corps has mapped out strategies to curb the excessive road accidents, she explained that among the strategies is to ensure the road user offenders are brought to book through fines, adding that the laws also can be interpreted to ensure that those who fall foul of the laws are jailed.
Available statistics from the state FRSC office indicates that as at January 29 2013, eleven road crashes occurred in Katsina metropolis and its environs with 12 people feared dead.
Habu Dauda, the Katsina State Sector Commandant of the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the major cause of accidents in Katsina State is more of human errors than the state of the roads.
Musa Babansada, a driver told Leadership Sunday that what was needed to address the rampant incidence of crashes in the state was for the FRSC to intensify its patrol and ensure offenders are punished accordingly without mercy.
The Corps Marshal Osita Chidoka, during the event said that inadequate patrol logistics affected their performance. " In the past, inadequate patrol and rescue logistics to optimally cover the wide network of roads and ensure effective enforcement and prompt rescue operations was a challenge hampering our performance.
Sunday 14 April 2013
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