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Death On
Nigerian Roads
An Eye Witness
Account
By Uche Nworah
If you have ever heard the saying that the
death of one person diminishes us, then you will truly
appreciate its deep meaning after seeing these shocking images,
and imagine that it could have been you, your friend, or family
member lying under this 40-feet petrol tanker.
For the families of the 16 people that were crushed to death in
this accident, no cries will ever ease the pain and no amount of
condolences will bring back to life their loved ones, who lost
their lives in a most horrific and horrendous manner.
Even as they boarded the Mitsubishi L300 passenger bus with
registration number: Akwa Ibom XA 554 KTE on the evening of
Thursday, the 14th of July 2005, they must have been filled with
a sense of joy, that they were finally going home from their
different offices and places of work to their families, after
another long hard day. Some of them may have dreamed of sitting
out in the moonlight with their families for some late family
dinner, others may have been looking forward to a forthcoming
family or personal event, a wedding or naming ceremony or even
to attending church service the coming Sunday.
But all those dreams died, and with them the
dream carriers. Their lives cut short by a combination of
factors: human error, poor judgement, political inefficiency,
infrastructural decay and man’s inhumanity to man. Some of the
villagers I spoke to blamed the cause of the accident on the
driver of the petrol truck belonging to Total Nigeria Plc, who
had mis-timed an overtaking manoeuvre, others heaped the blame
on the Nigerian government for neglecting the pothole – filled
Aba/Owerri Express road, saying that if the road, one of the
busiest in the eastern part of Nigeria had been dualised as
planned, then there would be less risks of accidents.
According to another villager, the accident
occurred between 7-8 pm, he said that the driver of the petrol
truck which was travelling from Owerri to Aba had tried to avoid
a pothole, and had then suddenly swerved to the left, and on to
the path of the on-coming mini-bus, which was then already close
by, the driver of the mini-bus had then out of desperation
swerved sharply into the nearby bushes to avoid a head-on
collision with the truck, but for whatever reasons, the driver
of the truck lost control of the truck which then climbed on top
of the mini-bus crushing all the passengers to death. There were
still unconfirmed reports as to the fate of the driver of the
truck by the time we arrived the scene, a few metres from the
main gates of the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority,
in Agballa – Owerri, Imo state.
Any hopes of rescuing any survivors must have
been lost because of the slow pace of response of the largely
under funded and under-equipped ambulance and emergency
services, who are not well equipped to handle such tragedies,
little surprise then, that as at 10 am the next morning, no form
of help or assistance had yet arrived the scene.
This is not an isolated case; there is so
much death on our roads, as a result of a combination of the
factors I earlier mentioned. This is only one of the many sad
tales and tragedies that confront our people everyday, and
another example of wasted opportunities in rural Africa.
As for the families of the deceased who may have lost their
'bread winners', we can only pray for them, that is the much we
can do for now, knowing that the true causes of the accident may
never be officially determined, neither will those responsible
be brought to justice, nor will they be made to pay any sort of
compensation, but as a good corporate citizen, hopefully Total
Nigeria Plc will not sweep this under the carpet. A case then
for the many non- governmental organizations (NGOs) in Nigeria
to pursue to its final conclusion.
Source:
Nigerian
Village Square / Tuesday, August 09, 2005 |
