On the night of Sunday, September 30, a young man who had just taken his dead mother to the mortuary not too long aga and was running around for her funeral, got involved in an accident that also claimed his life. It was along the Awka-Onitsha Express Road, just after Access Bank, Awka. His car had crashed against a stationary truck which had broken down on the road but was not towed away by either the owner or the officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC.
It was believed that the young man, being that visibility was poor, as it was in the night, must have thought that the truck was moving, only to realize too late that it was not. It was at that point that he crashed against it and his vehicle careered into a gutter nearby. The young Sunday died on the spot, thus joining his mother in the mortuary. His wife just gave birth recently.
This would not be the first time such an accident would happen. On many occasions, many other drivers had died after crashing against broken down vehicles, some of them having stayed on the road for days and weeks. Such deaths are all the more pathetic because they would have been prevented if the concerned authorities or the owners of the vehicles had done their job.
But we have observed that instead of doing their job of towing broken down vehicles off the roads, the FRSC officials rather seem to be more interested in booking drivers for such traffic offences as non-use of seat belts, non-possession of fire extinguishers and expired motor licences.
For sure, it is good for one to have all these things as they are also for one’s safety. But what rankles is the hypocrisy behind the entire thing because it is obvious that the concerned officials are more interested in the money they will make off the offenders by booking them. That is why they allow broken down vehicles, often times, heavy duty vehicles, to remain on the spots where they broke down for days and weeks, thus, constituting far bigger threats to life than those things the said officials check.
While the failure of the FRSC to tow broken down vehicles may be attributed to unavailability of tow trucks, it is a failure on the part of the government not to adequately equip an agency it created and saddled with the task of maintaining safety on the roads.
However, we have it on record that every State Command of the FRSC has these vehicles or has a way of circumventing the problem by hiring tow trucks. This said, the blame again shifts to the FSRC any time they are unable to tow away broken vehicles which go on to cause accidents.
As noted earlier, the FRSC officials seem more interested in raising funds by booking drivers for various traffic offences, than removing broken down vehicles from the roads. But even at this, it is selective. More often than not, drivers of commercial vehicles are not stopped for checking. Same goes for drivers of articulated vehicles.
These are not ideal as everybody driving a vehicle should be given the same treatment.
We are therefore calling on the FRSC to ensure that everybody gets equal treatment, while efforts should be made to equally ensure that no broken down vehicle remains on the road for more than a few hours. This will minimize accidents and when this is done regularly, the lives of those like Citizen Sunday will be saved.
