Lessons learnt in blood

Obodo Ejiro

On Wednesday 2, September, as I returned from work there was unusual traffic on Western Avenue; I tuned in to Traffic Radio and was informed that there had been an accident at the Ojuelegba area. It was 4:30 pm.

The reporter informed listeners that “an articulated vehicle carrying a container had thrown off its load.” Other details about the accident were not immediately available. “Officers of the Nigerian Police, LASTMA, FRSC, etc are standing at the accident scene helpless,” the reporter continued.

I had some business to conclude in Surulere, so I didn’t go straight to the scene, but knew I would eventually pass there since I live close by. I arrived the scene at 7:30pm.

Indeed, it was a tragedy. The rear of an articulated vehicle had skied off; throwing the container it was carrying from on top of the bridge. The container crashed from the bridge and landed on a vehicle that were waiting for the traffic light to go green. The rear of the articulated vehicle also came crashing down on another vehicle.

In particular, the container landed on a car with three passengers in it, reducing the car to almost a pile of flat metal. It was a great and unimaginable tragedy. (The victims may have died almost immediately)

As at the time I got to the scene, almost four hours after the accident happened, the container was still on the car, and not much had changed. The police and other law enforcement officials were at the scene but they seemed helpless and hapless. It was obvious that effort was being made to get a vehicle with the capacity to move the container, but the effort had not yielded fruit.

A horde of onlookers had swamped on the scene. (While some were on the bridge, others were standing meters from the container and other sensitive materials. Whats mind boggling is that more than half of them were either snapping pictures or recording videos. Those within hearing range were talking about how useless Nigeria is as a country!

“Really, you mean the victims are still trapped under that container,” a man exclaimed, “you mean the government of Lagos does not have equipment to move that container off the vehicle, he asked somebody standing close to him. “Is this not the state where someone spent N87million to upgrade a website and buy apps why don’t they have equipment that lift loads in case of emergencies like this,” someone responded to the first man’s question.

”We are finished in this country, only God can help us,” a woman in their midst said. “What of fire service is that not their office over there, you mean they can’t do anything about this?”

A young man in front of me turned to another and said, “I am sorry to say this, but you know this kind of accident will happen again!” “Yes, it may happen again,” his friend replied. As I listened to them, I concluded that their reasoning may not be altogether faulty because that kind of accident has happened at least twice in the last ten months and in the same location.

In late 2014, a container fell off the same bridge at noon on a Saturday. It almost killed the pregnant wife of one of my neighbours. She was on her way back from visiting her parents. Luckily no one was reported killed in that accident, this is probably because the container dangled for a few minutes before it dropped from the bridge.

Also, earlier this year, another container spilled its content on the bridge, releasing the consignment of noodles it was transporting.

As I write, the news coming in is that at least three vehicles like the one that killed people at Ojuelegba have dropped their containers in life threatening situations in different parts of Lagos (this is coming less than five days after that gory incident at Ojuelegba!).

There is a saying that “lessons learnt in blood are not soon forgotten” but in our case as a people, this is not the case. This is unacceptable! I may not be able to diagnose what went wrong on that Wednesday, but here are a few points I will like to make.

First, that accident could have been worse. The spot where the accident happened is a very busy junction. But what is particularly unique about it is that yellow buses permanently occupy one lane out of the three lanes on that particular stretch of road.

To me, that spot is a permanent reminder of the failure of law enforcement, all efforts to move the yellow buses off that stretch of road have failed for years. To make it worse, commercial motocycles are always on hand to make the problem worse.

How tragic it would have been if the container had landed on a fully loaded yellow! I was not surprised to see that the chaos was in full swing on the night immediately after the accident.

As is always the case, each accident if a result of four major factors: the road, human error, environmental factors and mechanical factors. Since I work in the Apapa area, I have faced firsthand the direct intimidation of some tanker drivers in the past. I have also wondered about who vets the road worthiness of their vehicles.

Trucks in bad state should be off the road. Also, some of the drivers need to undergo counseling because of the mentally exhausting work they do. Imagine the psychological impact of waiting in traffic for days to pick up wares. I sincerely pray that the souls of the departed would rest in peace. They were taken from us when they least expected.