Buchanan, Grand Bassa County – Frequent accidents on the Monrovia-Buchanan highway causing the death of several people in February have sparked concerns amongst the police, drivers and commuters in Grand Bassa County.
The traffic section of the Liberian National Police Grand Bassa County detachment disclosed to FrontPageAfrica on Thursday that four persons instantly died while over 20 people were severely injured in the month of February 2018.
Stephen Kpoeh of the county’s traffic department said investigation of over five major accidents is ongoing.
Amongst the accidents under investigation are a truck and a taxi accident on February 6 and two separate accidents involving motorcycle and taxi on February 9.
“We visited the hospital and most of those that did not died in those accidents broke their legs, hands and other parts of their bodies for which most of them were transferred to Monrovia,” Kpoeh said.
He asserted that many of these accidents are the result of over speeding.
“Drivers are not careful because they want make plenty money so they speed up to 120Km/h.”
“Even in a curve their speed limit is 120Km/h; these are the causes of the series of accident on the Monrovia-Buchanan Highway”, Kpoeh said.
“Drivers don’t even care that they are controlling human lives and they need to take time; we have also noticed that two persons usually ride in the front seats of vehicles.”
“This makes it difficult for drivers to change gears and a factor fueling accident on the Monrovia – Buchanan Highway”.
Seakor Freeman, Commander of the police detachment in the county, say they are considering instituting some road safety measures.
“We have put stop to two persons riding in the front and monitoring the movement of vehicles speed limit on a daily basis,” Freeman said.
“Our people are dying, they are breaking their legs and properties are getting damaged, this needs to reduce and so we are not going to rest, we are going to be on the back of drivers.”
The police have deployed several officers along the Monrovia-Buchanan highway as means of stopping drivers from over speeding.
Meanwhile, many commuters have expressed fear over the number of accidents.
Some are even now weary of traveling on the road.
Karyou Johnson, a resident of Buchanan, is afraid that more lives are at risk due to the over speeding of vehicles.
“Can you imagine, since this road was fixed from Monrovia to Buchanan, many of our citizens have been dying and getting hurt because of the carelessness of drivers,” Johnson said.
“The police really need to work or else most of our citizens are going to lose their lives on that road.”
Doris Garway, a businesswoman who travels frequently on the road, recalled how her mother died in an accident on the same road.
“My mother died in an accident on that same road because the drivers can’t take time on that road, they alone want to make three to four trips a day because of that they can be running and damaging the lives of people,” she explains, adding that she now finds it difficult to travel to Monrovia.
But some of the drivers who spoke to FPA argued that some passengers create condition that compels drivers to over speed.
“The passengers most often cause the driver to speed up and if you are not moving fast they start calling you all kinds of names. “
“They themselves have serious problems that they need to work on,” said Samuel Jackson, a driver.
“We as drivers agree to work with the police on their new rules because it is about our own lives but the passengers need to stop their attitude.”
Report by Elton Wrionbee Tiah, FPA Contributor