SLRSA AND POLICE MUST ACT NOW TO REDUCE ACCIDENTS
Figures of deaths and injuries on our roads during 2020 are grim. Simply put, we are losing too many souls on our roads and the situation is unacceptable.
We now raise the following points for the SLRSA and the SL Police to seriously consider. We don’t believe these are new issues but we want to be satisfied that at the start of 2021 we did register these concerns in the hope that those who should do something about the ever-increasing number of road accidents on our roads actually did something. Accidents are facts of life but surely we can minimize them and save many lives.
1. SLRSA must ensure that only those vehicles that pass a fitness test are allowed on the roads. There should be no compromise about that. There will be a lot of complaints in the beginning but people will come round to the idea that you really mean well.
2. In the same breadth we should say that all drivers must pass a proper test before getting licenses to go on our roads. Let’s not fool ourselves it is all over the place that there are rogue elements operating within the SLRSA who facilitate the process for people without subjecting them to the necessary tests. That must stop.
3. Police highway patrols should be stepped up. They should be very professional in all they do on those roads. That includes checking for contraband, the number of people on all vehicles and the weight of their luggage in relation of the approved weight set out by the manufacturers. Being professional means not collecting pennies from drivers and turning a blind eye to those dangers on our roads.
A BIG SHAME IN THE HEART OF OUR CITY: WHERE IS SLRA?
We are waiting for SLRA to tell us what is really happening in the general area around Eastern Police station, one of the most chaotic places in the heart of this city. Have a look at the pictures below and tell me if somebody who has never been to Freetown would believe this is an area in a place as important as that. Traders and thousands of people commuting to and from work daily and law enforcement officers mix freely throughout the day as they go about their normal business around this hub.
It’s very clear from what we saw that apart from the very poor state of that section of the road, there is a very big problem with the sewage system as dirty water flows freely around. We cannot allow this to continue for even the next 24 hours. We need the SLRA to stand up and do something about this.
Why is it that when it comes to road works in the affluent west of the city, the SLRA fall over themselves to fix things but not so in the east where the majority of the people live and are very poor? The road at Hill Station is now undergoing a makeover but SLRA will pretend they don’t know about Eastern Police. We serve notice that as with the Hill Station situation, we will keep this disgrace at Eastern Police on the agenda until something is done.
ILLSIDE BY-PASS ROAD IS AN EYESORE
We’ve been assured by people who should know that the Hillside By-pass road should be complete by the end of this year. The pace of the last mile area is such that we have reason to believe it will be no surprise if that vital link to the east of this city is open for business before Christmas 2021. As ordinary citizens, we want the best for this country so we wish those doing the road all the best. However, we want to call the attention of the authorities to the fact that the lower end of the road, leading to Dwarzark Junction is looking very poor. This very nice dual carriage way is beginning to look like a glorified Wilberforce Street.
We are calling attention to all the rotten vehicles abandoned in the parking area on both sides of the road. That space is provided so that drivers can drop off passengers or park their vehicles to attend to a quick business and leave. For more than a month now we’ve been counting all the rotten vehicles parked from the area just after Winners Chapel to Model School area. In fact people are now building ugly roadside structures to sell this and that. We have seen feeble attempts by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority to stop some of these constructions but we believe a big state institutions like that is being completely ignored by lawless people.
While all of this is happening the Mayor of the Sun is on social media telling the world of the MIRACLES she is performing in Freetown. We don’t know for sure but we believe her people are collecting market dues from the people selling in those illegal market stalls near Model School and Dwazark Junction. It’s very sad but things can only continue to go bad on that road.
OKADA TOUTS AT FBC - MODEL JUNCTIARE SHOULD LEAVE
If you are driving to Model Junction on the Hillside bypass road, driving to the east from Dwazark Junction you will see a group of young men to your right and dozens of motorcycles taxis behind them. Those young people are engaged in a very dangerous struggle for passengers for those OKADAS for a small commission. It’s from what they collect on that road that they survive so we understand why they are so desperate and reckless.
Hundreds of people from the mountain villages of Leicester, Regent and Gloucester and hundreds of FBC students assemble in that place in the morning and evening to commute to work and school and the way the OKADA touts go about getting them into their taxis or on the back of their OKADAS is dangerous. The boys operate in the middle of the main road and in some cases literally pluck people from the back of one OKADA to the other.
We hope it never happens but the day a vehicle malfunctions on approach to Model Junction from Albert Academy, we will be in for something very serious. The whole Model Junction area is becoming a totally impossible place.
We see police officers around with some Road Safety Corp but we don’t think that bringing order to that place is what they are trying to achieve. We are told FCC workers also collect dues from traders.
We’ve been calling attention to various issues around Model Junction on the Hillside bypass road. We are happy to be ignored once again because sometimes it feels really good to come back and say WE TOLD YOU SO.
OUR LADY OF Mount Carmel SCHOOL NEEDS URGENT ATTENTION
If authorities don’t act now, there could be a disaster of unbelievable proportions at Grafton community just outside Freetown. We are not exaggerating this at all. It’s a serious matter having to do with the learning environment of our children.
At any one time the school holds about FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY pupils and as you can imagine they are mostly children of the poor people living in and around Grafton. The school building is in poor shape. We are not engineers but we have reason to believe that a section of that building may just give way and collapse unexpectedly if nothing is done quickly.
We understand the school is government-assisted and that inspectors from the Ministry of Basic Education have been there and their attention has been drawn to the disaster waiting to happen. We are publishing this just to let the authorities and the general public to know what’s happening on the ground. We will not accept any excuses should delays lead to something serious in that place.
We will talk about classroom size and other concerns in the days of COVID-19 later. For now let somebody do something about the school building and prevent a catastrophe.
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