By Umaru Fofana
There seems to be no letup in the number of deaths by road accident in Sierra Leone and methinks there is no appetite to investigate them and take even if remedial action only. And memories of that genius of a radio engineer called Gas Pee who died simply because his car rammed into a stationary vehicle abandoned in the dark on a highway and did not have that cheap thing called a reflector.
Four lose their lives when their vehicle plummeted into a bridge. Eight perish when a public transport somersaulted. 10 people and several cows die when the truck they were travelling in derailed as horns found their ways into human bodies Dozens die after a trailer travelling to Kono veered off the road. Several meet their untimely death as a Poda Poda rammed into a truck. Many die when a van carrying bags of mangoes and passengers landed into a ditch. Two Poda Podas collide killing many. A lorry rammed into traders at Hagan Street in Freetown killing at least three,. On the same day another one left five killed around Masiaka. Okada passenger crushed to death. And on and on and on. As for road traffic accident injuries, please do not stress yourself up about them lest your life should terminate prematurely.
These are familiar stories reported in Sierra Leone especially in recent times. Some don't find their ways into the news headlines or on Whatsapp posts but they are no less disturbing. And they are happening everywhere - in the capital, Freetown and in the provinces; on bumpy roads and on those tracks that have had a new lease of life - thanks to the government’s road infrastructure drive.
Sadly, like with many things in Sierra Leone, there doesn't seem to be any serious effort to address the situation. It is all too easy to rename the roads outfit to reflect safety - Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority - but on the ground the real issues are allowed to fester. The law enforcement authorities and the courts are not helping matters either. So much so that some are repeat offenders.
It is hard to imagine - let alone believe - that the driver of the truck along the Kamakwie highway loaded mangoes and passengers onboard and killed many, was the same driver with the truck crammed with cows and passengers that killed several. And I understand he is walking a freeman - no consequence whatsoever for his apparent recklessness.
According to figures published in May 2014 by worldlifeexpectancy.com, attributed to the World Health Organisation, road traffic accidents hit 1,382 deaths in Sierra Leone - about 1.5% of total deaths in the country, ranking the country 25th in the world on the poor road safety index. The figures show traffic road accidents claimed more lives than kidney or lung diseases did in the country.
The attributed WHO figures make nonsense of statistics from the Sierra Leone Police Traffic Division that there were only 261 deaths in the country in the same year - 2014 - and that the figures reduced to 195 in 2015. I am totally skeptical about those figures and I dare say they do not seem to capture the true extent of the problem of road accidents and deaths emanating there from.
Leaving that aside, losing even one life to a road traffic accident should warrant an investigation with a view to holding someone accountable and averting a reoccurrence. Early this year, the head of police traffic division, Supt Ambrose Sovula was quoted as saying thus: “Accidents could be predicted and therefore prevented”. However in Sierra Leone there is hardly any consequence for action or inaction by public officials who fail to predict or avert such, never mind the defaulting drivers.
Because the agencies charged with the responsibility have not bothered to deal with it away from just the statistics, we cannot know the root causes let alone the remedy. However, a few road accident cases I have followed have been tyre-related. A vehicle tyre has a life span of four years. And all tyres have their manufacture dates written on them - four figures indicating the week and year they were made. For example “1614” means the tyre was manufactured in the sixteenth week (end of April) of 2014. That tyre expires in the sixteenth week of 2018.
Look around our tyre shops and see expired tyres being sold. So much so that it has become common for tyres to peel off or even puncture needlessly and cause road accidents and deaths. And the vulcanisers are not helping matters because, like with many other trades, theirs is one that is virtually unregulated. Last week I had my flat tyre fixed at Masiaka. I had it as my spare. I drove to Lunsar and returned to Freetown - and overnight the tyre had swollen and was ready to explode. I had to deflate it to avoid any scare at home. Imagine if I had used that tyre on the Lunsar-Freetown highway, and with such scorching heat on the tarmac which easily leaves vehicles to slither off.
How about those cheap old and sometimes expiring vehicles we bring into the country. many countries even in the subregion do not allow entry to vehicles that have served over five years. Here we allow vehicles in that were manufactured just at the turn of the millennium.
And officials of the so-called road safety authority hardly bother to verify vehicle fitness before renewing their licences. They approve vehicles for fitness without a genuinely clean bill of health. And some of the drivers are poorly trained and can barely use the road beyond just moving a vehicle. The drivers’ union care less about training their members and more about collecting money from them or even extorting them.
There are several police checkpoints along the highway, but you ask yourself how come a truck carrying cows and human beings in the same truck was allowed to leave Kambia all the way to Masiaka. Yet I am not aware of any traffic police officers who were called in for questioning let alone held to account. I love the police - especially the rank and files - but I dare say that many of those on our roads are simply busy extorting rather than save lives.
I agree that the passengers themselves were stupid to have boarded the same truck and crammed beneath timbers on which stood the cattle. But that does not absolve the police of responsibility. that is why even though our lives belong to us, a failed suicide attempt is criminal and one can be punished for it. So the state has responsibility even over your own life.
Or could something be wrong with our road construction? It would be disingenuous of anyone to deny that there has been remarkable improvement on our main roads - both inner city roads and highways. But could something be wrong with the engineering that makes these roads slippery especially in the rainy season which is drawing close? Whatever the cause(s) of the hight death tolls on our roads, those charged with the responsibility must be forced to think through solutions or/and take responsibility for their failure which is causing lives needlessly. Road safety goes beyond just nomenclature. Name-change is all it is - name-change. The fundamental issues must also be addressed. It is good to make money for the state - I am assuming all of it goes to the state - but what use with that money if the masses live as perilously as we seem to.
I will end where I started off - with memories of Gas Pee. A few years ago the road transport authority introduced the compulsory vehicle reflectors as part of their licence issuance or renewal. It obliged all vehicles to have a sticker that served as a reflector at night. That disappeared. Yet the police allow vehicles to go through their checkpoints without that cheap but life-saving thing. Sometimes I wonder when we will stop dying needlessly.
(C) Politico 30/03/16
