Drivers on a murderous mission
By Levi Obijiofor
EXACTLY three weeks ago, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) released staggering statistics on road fatalities in Nigeria which occurred between January and November 2009. The number of deaths recorded through road accidents was unacceptably high but the figures did not tell us what we did not know already. Too many people die needlessly through road accidents.
The FRSC report showed that 4,517 persons died through road accidents within 11 months in 2009 — an average of about 411 deaths every month. That is a troubling trend. The report also revealed that during the same period, there were 9,226 road crashes in which 23,081 people were injured in 12,165 vehicles. The figures released by the FRSC may have under-stated the seriousness of road accidents in Nigeria. These statistics, you must keep in mind, constitute the official tally of the incidents reported to FRSC offices across the country. Cases that were not reported to or sighted by FRSC officials were not included.
Our natural response is to consider official statistics on road accidents with a high degree of indifference. When other people’s deaths do not concern us, we show no emotion. Every road user should not consider statistics on road fatalities as mere data. Anyone could be a victim of fatal road accidents.
The FRSC road accident figures reveal one thing – failure of the FRSC to stop the carnage on Nigerian roads. But do we really need the intervention of an organisation to save us from our own ruin? With one month to go before the end of the year, everyone must be concerned. The worst is yet to come. December is generally regarded as the most accident-prone month.
In every society, negligent driving and bad roads constitute a deadly blend. In Nigeria, the most common cause of road accidents, you would be surprised to know, is not bad roads but careless driving. And Nigeria is afflicted with too many reckless drivers. Sadly, the presence of road safety officials has not served as a strong incentive for Nigerians to respect traffic regulations.
Many accidents are caused by one or a combination of human factors such as alcohol consumption, excessive speeding, carelessness (such as talking on mobile phones while driving), overloading of vehicles, as well as total disregard for traffic rules and road signs. What these show is that, in Nigeria, many people compete to break the law.
Excessive alcohol consumption remains one of the most under-reported causes of road accidents in Nigeria. It is treated like a taboo topic. In fact, how often do traffic police in Nigeria conduct breath-testing of drivers? I can’t recall ever being breath-tested. We don’t talk about the destructive impact of alcohol on driving because many men believe that drinking while driving is one way to express their masculinity.
As I observed in a related essay eight years ago, “Alcohol consumption, particularly excessive consumption, impedes visibility and reduces our natural reaction time. Evidence suggests that one in every five major commercial vehicle drivers like to keep (as company) some bottles of beer beside their seats. Private drivers fare no better. There are others who openly consume alcohol while driving.”
While road safety officials struggle to insert sanity into the heads of road users, many drivers continue to show total disregard for basic rules of life. Unfortunately, our contempt for road regulations has driven many people to their early deaths or permanent incapacity. The way some drivers operate their vehicles leaves the impression that they are driving under the combined influence of alcohol and the devil. The two stimulants can only lead to one of two outcomes – immediate death or serious physical and mental injuries that leave them with nothing but life in a vegetative state. It’s not a pretty picture. Still, many drivers don’t care.
FRSC boss Osita Chidoka tried to rationalise why Nigerian drivers behave the way they do. He said most road crashes were caused by human factors. But he also alluded to our fatalistic beliefs about life – our cavalier reference to ‘Whatever will be, will be’. Chidoka said: “A driver who overloads his vehicle, drives at top speed, regardless of the nature of the road, disobeys traffic signs with impunity and operates in a manner reminiscent of one on a race-track, cannot in all sincerity blame God if he lands himself in a crash that claims his life and those of his entire family members travelling with him.”
While it is not uncommon to criticise drivers for inappropriate conduct, we must also blame the corrupt processes through which driving licences are issued to inexperienced and untrained drivers. In Nigeria, anyone who wants a driving licence can get it with or without passing a driving test. I’ve heard people boast that they received their driving licences even when they could not differentiate between an odometer and a speedometer. Someone once said that driving tests are mostly for those who can’t afford to buy their licences over the counter. That must be true.
Issuing driving licences indiscriminately in a messy manner or through corrupt channels to people who are not qualified to drive is like issuing guns (of any calibre) to people who are not qualified to hold gun licences. Terrible consequences are usually the outcomes.
Casual references to the inevitability of life and death have been used as convenient excuses in Nigeria to accommodate all manner of injustices, human rights abuses and official bungles. In her former capacity as director-general of the National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Information Minister Dora Akunyili strongly criticised the condescending practice whereby relatives of victims of medical blunders hiss and leave everything to God. In 2003, four of 12 children who suffered from heart defects died at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, after undergoing surgical operation conducted by a medical team from the International Heart Foundation. Investigations by NAFDAC revealed that the four children died as a result of the devastating effects of fake and counterfeit drugs bought at Enugu and used in their treatment.
In 2005, Akunyili said in a television programme that it was unacceptable for parents of the children to take no action simply because of religious beliefs about the inevitability of life and death. Akunyili told her interviewer, a foreign television journalist: “In Nigeria, people die and they say ‘Oh, that’s the way God wants it. We don’t want to go to court. God has given, God has taken away’. But in developed countries people will go to court. People will sue the doctor. People will sue the manufacturers. And I want it to happen. When people start suing them, taking them to court, then they will sit up.” The same must apply to families of victims of road accidents caused by drunken drivers or drivers whose vision and concentration were severely impaired by consumption of illicit drugs.
Of course, there are various reasons why drivers would want to avoid responsibility for road crashes. First, no one wants to carry the emotional burden or suffer the legal consequences of causing an accident. Second, it is more convenient to draw on our supernatural beliefs to explain road accidents. The refrain is: the “wicked ones” have done their worst. Given our fondness for superstition, some people tend to believe it when they are told that unseen forces caused an accident. This explains why we are more likely to sympathise with a driver who tells high-flying stories about how their great grandfather or grandmother caused an accident because they were not buried with full traditional rites. It might appear weird but, in matters of superstition, people often trade pragmatism for fantasy.
As the number of road fatalities continues to rise in Nigeria, everyone must be wondering how we can save ourselves from self-inflicted harm. It is not enough to arrest, fine, or serve official warnings to dangerous drivers who take other people’s lives. We need stronger deterrents such as withdrawal of driving licences, jailing of dangerous drivers, imposition of heavy fines and perhaps a combination of all three and more. I must submit, however, that it would be useless to suspend or withdraw driving licences in a country where it is easy for people to obtain licences without undergoing driving tests.
Federal and state governments, including all agencies responsible for safe motoring must act quickly to reduce or eliminate the bloodshed on Nigerian roads. Many drivers are on a suicide mission or murderous assignment. They must not be allowed to take their own lives or the lives of other people.
December 4, 2009
Tags: accident, frsc, Nigeria, road safety Posted in: Levi Obijiofor
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