Life widely acknowledged as a sacred thing that must be preserved. Little wonder irrespective of our religious leanings virtually everyone craves for long life. People consciously take steps to run away from any danger that seeks to risk loss of their lives. The sacredness of life stems from the fact that no one can create or give one.
Contrary to the above position our experiences is that majority of us consciously or unconsciously have been involved in activities that exposes us to loss of lives, not just one’s life but including those of others. Through road accidents precious lives have been lost carelessly. The most painful aspect is that these losses are preventable and avoidable.
Most of the road mishaps occur because our roads are in terrible conditions. Every year some of the roads are captured in our budgets but are never given attention. They worsen with each passing year and develop to become death traps. Deliberate failure to fix the road is a deliberate human action inviting dead.
The tankers conveying petroleum products and other heavy duty vehicles are most often victims of bad roads which they find difficult to manouvre.
When road accidents occur we lament, wail, brood over it and blame Satan for the cause where as we have made ourselves the Satan. In developed societies where roads are delightfully constructed Satan do not cause loss of lives. Sadly, we continue living on the illusion that some dark forces are behind our travails on this divide.
Another willful human action that is taking a toll on our lives is the state of the vehicles plying our roads and the lack of interest to check the status of the road worthiness before we ply them on our roads. So many lives have been lost in this manner regrettably. Arising from poor economic condition the motorists, especially commercial ones do not maintain their vehicles.
These vehicles in such a terrible state predispose users to numerous accidents. Some vehicles do not have good tyres, side mirrors, break system, gear box and other aides that facilitate safe trips. Above all, the drivers and the passengers hardly care to check the stability of their vehicles before setting out.
The bad social habits of the drives contribute significantly to the carnage on our roads. Most of the drivers indulge in taking some alcoholic drinks and drugs before getting on the wheels thereby risking their lives and that of passengers.
Worst of it all is that the relevant authorities constituted to control some of these issues have not discharged their duties creditably. Most of the vehicles plying the road by mere sight could be found as quite not road worthy yet they are allowed to ply as harbingers of death dispatching people to their untimely grave.
The Federal Road Safety Corps, the Police, the Vehicle Inspection Officers, and all agencies charged with regulating our transport systems have not been impressive and this results from neglect of the supervising authorities to do the expected.
News Echo calls on the authorities to be alive to their responsibilities to spare us the agonies of losing precious family members. We have been quite negligent in managing critical issues such as life.
The authorities who mismanage public funds that should be used to provide these infrastructures should know that the man who hauls a stone into the market square do not know on whose head it would fall. It could be on their mothers.
