TANKO Aliyu (not real names) left home, overjoyed, one early Monday morning in November 2012, from Kaduna, travelling to Abuja to meet with his new employers who had informed him the previous day of his appointment as one of the new sales representatives of their company. Tanko, who had been jobless for over three years, even after graduating with a first class degree, was eager to resume duties in Abuja and get acquainted with his new environment. However, he would never resume at his new job as fate had other plans for him. The bus he was travelling in was involved in an unfortunate accident with an articulated vehicle whose driver lost control of the mammoth machine a few kilometers from Abuja and Tanko was one of the 14 people that lost their lives.
Sad as his tale may be, it is only one of the stories of thousands of victims who have lost their lives to the ‘trailers of death’, as they are now being called. Though this is not to say that all articulated vehicles are harbingers of death, the rate at which multiple deaths occur daily from road accidents resulting from their plying the highways is quite alarming. In April 2013 alone, over 100 people lost their lives in accidents involving articulated vehicles.
On the 6th of April, 2013, over 20 people were crushed to death in an accident involving a trailer and two buses while 60 people were burnt alive along Benin-Lagos expressway in commercial and private cars when a fuel tanker lost control and spilled its contents. Two children in a mechanic workshop were among the victims. That same day, 20 persons were killed in an accident at Potiskum, Yobe State, when a mass transit bus rammed into an articulated vehicle.
On April 14th, the Abuja-Lokoja road witnessed yet another fatality in an accident between a Volkswagen Golf car and an articulated vehicle leaving seven people dead. The next day, April 15th, five people were killed when two private cars collided with an articulated vehicle along Asaba-Onitsha expressway.
On the 23rd April, 2013, over 60 houses were feared burnt as a fuel-laden tanker fell at Inalende junction, Ibadan, Oyo State. And so, in less than one month, over 100 people died as a result of accidents involving fuel tankers and trailers and properties worth billions of naira were destroyed. The real figures could be much higher since not all accidents are recorded.
According to a report published by the Corps Commander of Federal Road Service Corps (FRSC), Dr. Kayode Olagunju, about 4,076 people were killed and 12,994 others injured in accidents involving fuel tankers and articulated vehicles otherwise known as trailers between 2007 and 2010.
There has been a steady rise in the number of fatalities since then and there are predictions that the number will continue to rise. The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, confirmed that Nigeria has the second highest road traffic accident fatalities among the 193 countries of the world.
A concerned citizen wrote a piece online about the alarming statistics. He said, “The people who perished in the trailer/tanker accidents never bargained for it. They are not just statistics; they were young men and women with hopes and dreams. They meant the world to their loved ones. There is the story of the husband and wife who were killed in that crash. They had only been re-united the day before, after 10 years of living apart in different countries. Their children were looking forward to seeing their dad who had been away in Austria for a decade; they never got to see either parent or even their bodies as they died when a fuel tanker rammed into their vehicle on their way home. Occupants of both commercial and private cars as well as pedestrians suffered the most agonising and horrific death imaginable. Men, women and children roasted alive. Their cries of agony and terror only ending when they breathed their last. Parents unable to help their children, husbands unable to help their wives. Most were burnt to ashes, totally beyond recognition and had to be given a mass burial”.
That is the agony Nigerians have come to face in recent times. According to the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka, a number of factors are responsible for prevalent road accidents in Nigeria, including over-speeding, he said ranked the highest, overloading of vehicles, the bad condition of Nigerian highways, unqualified and untrained drivers, and lack of proper road markings, among others.
However, many are quick to point fingers at the drivers of trailers and heavy vehicles because, according to them, they lack respect for the average road user. It is normal to see car drivers afraid to overtake them on the highways or queue behind them in traffic.
According to Tope Akinola, a doctor at the University Teaching Hospital (UCH), fuel tanker and company trailer drivers are the worst set of road users any motorist could face on the highways.
“I hate to travel to Lagos or up north by road just because of the truck drivers because they lack road manners. The number of accidents one witnesses on Nigerian roads, especially with the so called trailers, is sickening and the deaths recorded from such are saddening. The FRSC and other safety regulatory bodies must do more to ensure that the heavy vehicles that ply the highways are properly maintained and their drivers drive with caution,” he said.
Mrs Agnes Okpaloka, a teacher, lamented that most of the trailer drivers travelled long distances without getting much sleep and as a result, are not as alert as they should be on the highways thus posing a dangerous threat to other road users.
She said, “the trailer drivers cover very long distances and sleep less so as to get to their destinations on time. As a result, you often find them relying on alcoholic beverages and bitter cola to keep awake when they travel. I implore the companies who hire these drivers not to set stiff targets for them and allow them rest more.”
Others claimed that the drivers of such articulated vehicles, often times, were illiterates who had no formal driving training and as a result, could not identify or obey basic traffic rules, adding that most of them did not possess driver’s licences.
Accordingly, the FRSC, as part of efforts to restore the dignity of the nation’s drivers and ensure that only those who are qualified are issued the licences, prescribed national standards for the driver’s licence, among which is the mandatory attendance of driving school by fresh applicants. The driving school must be certified by the Corps under its Driving School Standardisation Programme (DSSP). It has also introduced compulsory and routine medical checks for commercial drivers.
Similarly, the Corps had introduced the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme (RTSSS) to ensure minimum safety standard among fleet operators. Mr. Chidoka had disclosed recently that so far, about 2,843 operators have been registered on the FRSC database while 927 have been certified and are under radar watch to sustain these standards.
Also, in response to the spate of accidents involving articulated vehicles in the territory, the FCT Administration had initially restricted trailer movements to between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m within the territory. This was, however, restructured to include between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
The government provided truck terminals at the three entry points to the city. The trailers, whose movement falls within the ban period, are expected to stop temporarily at the terminals until they can be allowed to continue on their journey. According to the state officials, the measure was targeted at discouraging mixed use of road between small vehicles and heavy duty vehicles during peak-hours to reduce road accidents and traffic congestion and also to afford drivers of these trucks the opportunity to relax before continuing on their journey.
Apart from enforcing a rule on the time articulated vehicles can ply township roads, as is done in many parts of the world, many advocate that it is time for the government to provide the rail alternative to moving goods and products from one point to the other across the country. The simple reason an unduly high number of articulated vehicles is plying the roads is because the railway system in Nigeria is comatose. An efficient railway system will effectively eliminate the preponderance of unfit articulated vehicles on Nigerian roads, thus addressing the evil of road accidents, which, ironically, kills more than HIV/AIDS and malaria, according to the FRSC.
Also, many opine that while Nigerians wait for the construction of a rail network, more could be done especially as regards safety with haulage trucks that carry containers and fuel as regards prevention against their falling off or spillage. Often, haulage trucks have been known to spill their contents or have their cargo fall off the backs of the trucks altogether thus causing varying levels of destruction on the highways.
According to Godson Ihenacho, an engineer, there is normally a required weight of tonnage that every vehicle is limited to carry stressing however, that often times, it was the safety precautions of latching or securing the containers to the backs of the truck that was the problem, among other factors coupled with the driver’s experience to tackle an awkward situation on the highway.
He said if the safety truck inspectors of various companies, where available, lived up to their duties by ensuring the proper and routine maintenance of their fleet and would properly monitor every outgoing vehicle as regards the proper placing and securing of its cargo, as well as proper training and education of the drivers of such vehicles, there would be less carnages on the roads.
Also Joe Igbokwe, the Chief Executive of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency, said recently, “The government needs to take another look at the laws that guide the use of heavy duty trucks on our roads and enact appropriate legislation to curb the recklessness of the truck drivers. Flat-bed trucks carrying containers must be properly checked to ensure their cargo is properly fastened to the beds. Many times, unfastened containers have fallen from trucks and killed people.”
As regards victims, there have been widespread outcries over compensation from owners of the offending ‘trailers of death’ whenever they are involved in accidents.
Many times, victims of such barely live to recount their ordeal and some, as in the cases of fuel tanker accident victims, are burnt beyond recognition. Compensation, in most cases, have always generated controversies with claims and counter-claims from both parties. Some have resulted in legal battles that continue for years. This, as most individuals who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune opined, was one aspect where they needed the federal government and the Senate to look into.
According to Tope Odanye, a social worker, accident victims need to be protected more.
“If road users know that if they are responsible for an accident, they will be forced by the law to pay compensation, they (road users) will be more careful. As regards the truck drivers and companies, they should be made to pay huge amounts of money. This way, the companies and people who own the trucks and their drivers will be more responsible and accountable.
However, the FRSC has advocated familiarity and compliance with the safety requirements and guidelines for heavy duty trucks and articulated vehicles that it published online for public use. Also, according to Chidoka, the FRSC runs a 24/7 call centre which has been infused into an Emergency Ambulance Service scheme to ensure prompt response to road crashes. It has also formally launched a toll free emergency line, 122, to ensure a seamless interface between the FRSC and the motoring public in the event of a road crash.
The Deputy Corps Public Education Officer, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, also told Nigerian Tribune that the FRSC has re-aligned its patrol and enforcement strategies by introducing enforcement-free operations in order to stimulate improved safety consciousness among road users in the country, adding that the Corps has also modified its operations to ensure increased presence on the highways.
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