Stemming carnage on Nigerian roads

7 years ago

Stemming carnage on Nigerian roads

Deaths, horrific injuries, wrecks, traffic lock-downs, loss of invaluable hours …

The gloomy details of crashes on Nigerian roads are disturbing. Their crippling effects on the social and economic wellbeing of the country are no less alarming. Sadly, the carnage seems to be on the increase…

And on Wednesday, tragedy struck once again when three persons were burnt to death in a fire accident involving a tanker and three other vehicles on Kara Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The fire started around 3a.m., shortly after the brake of a tanker, laden with 33,000 litres of diesel, failed and rammed into a truck carrying brewery products at high speed. Scores of commuters were subjected to trekking long distances yesterday morning following the multiple accidents.

Expectedly, the incident worsened the already chaotic gridlock on the busy highway occasioned by the ongoing repair of the road. This left motorists and commuters stranded for several hours, especially on the lane outward Lagos, where the accident occurred.

The gridlock that started from the Kara Bridge, close to the popular Julius Berger Bus Stop, stretched to Asese, a few kilometres away from the Redemption Camp as at 8:00a.m.

Similarly, the queue formed by the Lagos outbound vehicles had stretched from the scene to Magodo, opposite the Lagos State Secretariat complex.

Many intending passengers who had wanted to travel from border communities to Lagos were stranded at their various bus stops because majority of the commercial buses that could have conveyed them were held in the traffic.

Some motorists, who were stuck in traffic for hours and had their plans disrupted as a result of the incident, lamented that the accident has become one too many.

One of them, who gave his name simply as Dare, urged the Federal Government and other relevant authorities to prevail on the contractor handling the road repairs to be more professional in order to lessen the several man-hours spent on the highway daily.

According to him, an average motorist spends between three to four hours between Tollgate and Warewa everyday because of the ongoing rehabilitation on Long Bridge, which he said is being done without recourse to the sufferings of road users.

He berated the government for not doing enough to safeguard the lives of its citizens on the road, saying there are many avoidable accidents on the road due to its poor state.

Also affected were those travelling to Lagos from other parts of Nigeria as well as those travelling outside Lagos.

According to a witness, the resultant inferno engulfed two other trucks and a Toyota Corolla saloon car. Mercifully, the number of casualty was minimal.