Some of the states’ Houses of Assemblies have passed laws prohibiting articulated vehicles from plying the roads in the day time but to operate in the night because of the havoc they cause on the roads.
This came with stringent punishment against offenders/defaulters.
Unfortunately, these laws have become paper tigers. Barking legislature without biting. No state can develop that wastes all the legislative prowess and processes to legislate over a matter, passing through the rigors of bills without full scale implementation.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria is the most dangerous country in Africa with over 33.7 deaths (through road accidents) per 100, 000 population every year. This implies that one in every four deaths recorded through road accidents in Africa occurs in Nigeria.
From statistics in not too far a record, between 2007 and 2010, 4, 017 accidents involving trailers were recorded. Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) reported that the accidents were caused by obstruction, speed violation, mechanically deficient vehicles, overloading violation, dangerous overtaking, loss of control, route violation, driving under the influence of alcohol and drug as well as wrong overtaking.
The hours motorists and commuters spend on the roads are caused by damage/breakdown of the articulated vehicles on the road. A trailer spoils on the major road, instead of towing that vehicle to a convenient place for repair, the vehicle is being repaired on the road, subjecting the people to untold hardship of trekking home. Sometimes, the repair of the vehicle takes three days or more and the agency of the government does nothing about this ugly situation.
What one rather sees is the government agencies chasing commercial vehicles over daily tickets when they could fine heavily that spoilt articulated vehicle to increase government’s IGR.
The havoc caused by these articulated vehicles can better be imagined.
FRSC noted that well over total of 21,199 vehicles have been involved in crashes, and 1,495 were tankers or trailer-related accidents. This represents 7.05 per cent of the accidents.
Another report following the above has it that a total of 16,779 vehicles were involved in crashes, out of which 998 were tanker or trailer-related. This represented 5.94 per cent of the total crashes that year. This tells one that the accidents caused by articulated vehicles keep increasing yearly and if nothing is done about it, this neglected aspect of recklessness that can be corrected by simple operative law, will skyrocket in geometric progression.
It is high time, the government of the day or its agencies resurrected the existing laws on the operations of the articulated vehicles, so that when a vehicle breaks down on the road, the owners must find a way to pull it out of the road to avoid punishing other road users. Heavy level of fines could serve as deterrent to others, especially that the owners check the state of their articulated vehicles before entering the roads.
