Tears,Pains and Blood on Christmas
On 25th December 2015, I was privileged for the first time to watch flat mates, a television drama running on DSTV. It was the first time I would watch the series without being bugged by work challenges .The Christmas edition was a reminder on the typical travel attitude of my brothers from the East whose Christmas celebrations can never be complete if it is not celebrated in the East. On air personality, Yaw-real name Steve Onu who played the part kept reminding his flat mates that although he was unemployed, he must however travel home for Christmas with the little money he has been able to save. That episode kept me wondering on our travel and driving habits although there are genuine travel habits that you cannot but understand although for me i can never understand the driving habits. My real worry is how a period meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ yearly turns out leaving tears pains,and blood. Three tragedies will form the core of my focus in this piece. The first tragedy is the death of about ten women in a road traffic crash in Kano. The incident, occurred around 8.30pm at the old tollgate near Sa’adatu abubakar Rimi College of Education. The women were conveying a bride from Unguna uku to Yan’lemu area when the driver lost control of the vehicle, hit the tollgate and divided into two. Eight women died on the spot instantly while the remaining died at fulofmotoristsdrivewithadeathwishontheirmind. If you call them suicide driven motorists or maniac on the wheels, you won’t be wrong. These motorists drive as if they have a special immunity or what in our parlance; we call jazz or juju which promises false protection in the event of a crash… I hate bad, reckless, irresponsible and suicide driven divers who forget that 90percent of deaths recorded globally and in Nigeria affect people aged 15-44years .This category, according to WHO account for 48percent of global road traffic deaths. The WHO report equally notes that from a young age, males are more likely to be involved with about three quarters (73%) of all traffic deaths occurring among men. It further notes that among young drivers, young males under the age of 25 are almost 3times as likely to be killed in a car crash as young females. . They equally forget that the World Health Organisation (WHO), is worried that one million deaths occur on the world’s road annually with over 50 million injuries sustained through avoidable road traffic crashes.
Yearly, 400,000people under the ages of 25years die at an average of more than 1000 a day. These deaths are more in low and middle income countries among vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclist, motorcyclist and those using public transport. Speeding remains the single most common traffic violations and explains why the Federal Road Safety Corps has fixed mid 2015 as deadline for enforcement of speed limiters in vehicles beginning with commercial vehicles. The use of phone while driving, dangerous driving, unlicensed and under aged driving are also prevalent violations, in addition to lane indiscipline among others.
WHO identifies three risks factors; Speed, drink driving, seat belt, distracted driving and wearing of motorcycle helmet correctly which can reduce the risk of death by almost 40% and the risk of severe injury by over 70%.I hope to dwell on this three as a guide to the choice you make each time you drive- choice to live or die. I know that the suicide driven motorists don’t care about the speed limit of 100km/ph. They think government through the FRSC is nuts to post speed limits and restrict their freedom.
They reason, that since car manufactures fix maximum speed of vehicles at almost 280km/h and since the car belongs to them, therefore they are at liberty to drive at whatever speed they choose to. We are however cautioned and told that excessive speed kills. Researchhasitthat anincreaseinaveragespeed is directly related both to the likelihood of a crash occurring and to the severity of the consequences of the crash. So if you love life, you should at every time keep to the speed limit of 100km/h which is the maximum speed on the expressway for private cars and 90km/h for taxis and buses. The same applies to driving within build up areas such as schools,markets,commercial and busy areas; the speed limit here is further reduced to between 20-50km/h .You must at every time be guided by this rules and not by the supposed programmed events for the day. Some other facts on speed states that pedestrians have a greater chance of surviving a car crash at 30 km/h or below.30 km/h.