Saints Or Sinners
She was the third and only girl child in a family of six. Cute, humble, brilliant and athletic, ebony black Cynthia was the darling of the family especially the late father whose bonding with Cynthia was cemented when at the early age of 50; he was diagnosed with a deadly ailment that kept him bedridden for over ten months in the hospital. For ten months, Cynthia who had earlier lost the mother in a road traffic crash which claimed the lives of over ten passengers was the wife, mother, nurse and the prayer warrior whose soothing voice woke other patients as she daily sought for heavens divine intervention for her father and other patients whose predication only needed a touch from above. Despite her tender age of 18years when the father took ill, she played the script professionally as if she was destined for that role. Her faith played out well as her father after a couple of months miraculously got healed and was discharged alongside some other patients who nicknamed themselves ‘landlords ‘because of their long stay in the hospital.
Barely twelve months after, was Cynthia’s joy short-lived when she lost her father in a bizarre circumstance. Now an orphan, she struggled, selling and buying in addition to doing odd jobs such as working as nanny to different families at different time. It was in the course of this life struggle that heaven smiled on her when a Christian family took interest and offered to bring her in as a step daughter, promising to provide for her what she lost through the death of her parents including sponsorship for her education. It was this promise that paved the way for Cynthia who was admitted to one of the famous State University to study for a degree in Law. From the first year, she shone like the star that she is emerging best overall student both in her first and second year. On her third year however, tragedy struck as Cynthia who was in a company of two other colleagues was about crossing the road when a patrol vehicle belonging to one of the security agencies knocked her down and killed her on the spot. Cynthia is not the first as many others have either sustain various degrees of injuries, or lost their lives in similar circumstances while others have remained crippled.
One way driving or wrongway driving (WWD) is defined by WIKEPEDIA as the act of driving a motor vehicle against the direction of traffic. It can occur on either one- or twoway roads (in the latter case, arising from driving on the wrong side of the road), as well as in parking lots and parking garages, and may be due to driver inattention or impairment, or because of insufficient or confusing road markings or signage, or a driver from a right-hand traffic country being unaccustomed to driving in a left-hand traffic country, and vice versa. People intentionally drive in the wrong direction because they missed an exit, for thrill-seeking, as a suicide attempt, or as a shortcut.
On a divided highway, especially freeway, WWD is a serious problem because of the high speeds usually involved, since the result is more likely a head-on collision. In the United States, about 355 people are killed each year in crashes caused by drivers headed in the wrong direction on the highway. Given an average of 265 fatal WWD crashes, 1.34 fatalities per WWD fatal crash can be calculated. The significance of these kind of crashes is corroborated when this number is compared to the fatalities per fatal crash rate of 1.10 for all other crash types, which translates to 24 more fatalities per 100 fatal crashes for WWD crashes than for fatal crashes in general. Most drivers who enter a divided highway or ramp in the wrong direction correct themselves by turning around Depending on the jurisdiction, WWD is a punishable offense. In Efforts to reduce wrong-way driving [
One of the aims of highway engineering is to reduce wrongway driving.
National Transportation Safety Board’s Highway Special Investigation Report
This topic of safety has gained renewed attention in the recent years in the United States. In doing so, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a special investigation report about wrong-way driving in which relevant safety countermeasures to prevent wrong-way collisions on highspeed, divided highways are identified. One important part of this report is Section 4 which provides recommendations for different agencies, including Federal Highway Administration and NHTSA, to address wrong-way collisions.
Wrong-Way Driving Guidebook [edit]
In May 2014, ICT and IDOT published Guidelines for Reducing Wrong-Way Crashes on Freeways. [8] The researchers compiled the guidebook by reviewing previous studies, assessing current practices, and examining national and state design standards and manuals that pertain to WWD. The research team also obtained significant information from the National Wrong-Way Driving Summit hosted by IDOT and SUIE as part of this project in July 2013.