ROAD ACCIDENTS IN Liberia kill more people than some epidemics, but the Government of Liberia, especially the Liberia National Police and the Ministry of Transport refuse to see it for what it is – a national crisis.
ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2011, Cllr. Isaac Wonasue, a one-time astute Liberia who represented the legal interest of the Central Bank of Liberia on his way home from work crushed into an abandoned truck left on the road in Congotown. The truck had no reflectors, no warning triangle – it was a hazard.
HE LEFT TO MOURN HIS wife of more than 4 decades, Mrs. Whiema Tate-Wonasue, his children, Monica Taylor-Woods, Alice, Alicia, Alex (Sylvia), Sam, Reuben, Ike and Karty Wonasue-Wilson (Rembert); his beloved grandchildren, brother, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, foster children, scores of relatives, in-laws, friends and colleagues.
IN MARCH 2016, Cyril Allen Jr., son of Chief Cyril Allen, early that Saturday morning met his untimely demise when his Nissan Pathfinder (plate A61644) struck a heavy-duty Renault truck, which was parked on the main road.
THE TRUCK, WITH plate C50363, had developed a mechanical problem and its operators didn’t remove it from the main road; neither did they place reflectors or other warning signs on the road for other motorists to take heed.
SEVERAL DEATHS of similar nature continue to occur along highways and boulevards. The story is told of an American Peace Corps volunteer who crashed into an abandoned truck on the Monrovia-Kakata highway and died instantly.
IN JUNE 2017, teenager Princess Yates who was visiting Liberia with her grandmother died after a car accident on Crown Hill in Monrovia. According to reports, the vehicle she was in ran into an abandoned vehicle on the road. She died later at the JFK Hospital, when the hospital rejected her – demanding payments before treatment.
THE STORY OF THESE unfortunate accidents can go on and on. The most recent and heart pricking was the death of a young enterprising Liberian lady, Aletha C. Blamo, who on Tuesday night crashed into an abandoned truck parked on the road near Lott Carey in the Brewerville. She leaves behind her son who is barely two years old.
FOR EVERYONE UNDERTAKING a road journey, the risk of a fatal accident has been rising steadily. It continues to calamitously claim young and productive lives.
UNFORTUNATELY, STATS on road accidents in the country do not come handy.
THE ANNUAL STATISTICS for 2016 (the most recent available) show 1,557 road accidents compared to the 1,149 in 2015. The statistics reveal that deaths in road accidents in 2016 were 175 while in 2015 a total of 215 people died in such mishaps. In 2016, road accident injuries were 1,539 compared to 1,118 in 2015. The increase was equivalent to 3.15 percent.
ACCORDING TO THE POLICE STATISTICS, 129 cases were taken to court in 2016 while 198 were taken to court in 2015. 798 of those cases were resolved in 2016 while 515 were resolved in 2015, 630 cases are pending in 2016 as compared to 436 in 2015.
IN 2016, 2,096 VEHICLES were damaged as compared to 1,644 in 2015, and 2,649 vehicles were involved, while 1,997 in 2015. The road accident statistics also revealed that accident description either by car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian, motorcycle to pedestrian, motorcycle to motorcycle and self-accident. 4,061 accidents occurred, 1,149 in 2015.
THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT attributes transportation accidents in Liberia to several reasons: poor maintenance of vehicles, hazardous road conditions, aggressive drivers, and widespread disregard for traffic laws.
ACCORDING TO THE STATE Department, the most prevalent danger posed to Americans in Liberia is vehicle accidents, especially at night.
THE ROADS ARE NOT ILLUMINATED at night, resulting in an increased risk of traffic accidents.
THIS IS WHY WE EXPECT the Liberia National Police and the Ministry of Transport to be more proactive in road safety engagements.
OUR ACCIDENTS HISTORY which is confirmed by the U.S. Department shows that most of these accidents occur due to poor illumination and vehicles abandoned on roads.
THIS IS A PUBLIC HEALTH emergency that requires immediate action. One of the most productive measures to bring down accidents is zero tolerance enforcement. Strong policing reduces the risk for road users.
ACCORDING to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global status report on road safety, 1.25 million people die in road traffic accidents every year. What this means is that road traffic accident is a global phenomenon not unique to only Liberia but the measures put in place to reduce accidents to its barest minimum is what matters.
WITH THE RIGHT mindset and the right approach to the enforcement of our road traffic regulations, we will survive the accident crisis, which is quite disturbing in these recent times. Our approach to accidents has always been the reactive type, where we wait for accidents to occur before we rush to the scenes with a flint of hope to see whether we can save some people instead of the proactive type where road traffic regulations are strictly enforced to avoid the occurrence of accidents in the first place.
IN ADVANCED COUNTRIES, the only solution to accidents is the strict enforcement of road traffic laws and strict compliance by the citizenry.
ACCIDENTS DO NOT cause deaths only but leave people in economic hardships and poverty. Many people lose valuable properties as well as leaving hundreds in permanent damages. The cost of accident is physically and economically unquantifiable.
IT IS THE MANDATE of the Traffic Division of Liberian National Police to ensure that road traffic regulations are enforced to the strict compliance of offending drivers, riders and pedestrians. But, unfortunately this department of the police is suffering from battered image crisis as a result of wild accusations from the general and travelling public for bribery and corruption on our roads.
WE EXPECT THE POLICE to promote and coordinate road safety activities and to give the public all the needed education on road safety. If you look at the behavior of some people on the road, it suggests that either the Traffic Division is not working to their mandate.
THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT which is responsible for the issuance of driver’s license should also be blamed for the many unqualified drivers who acquired their licenses through illegal means and find themselves on the road without going through testing requirements about the dos and don’ts as well as road traffic signs which are to guide drivers on the road.
THE FIRST TO PREVENT an accident is the driver; followed by passengers and the pedestrians. If all these actors fail to play their roles to prevent accidents, the state should intervene by ensuring that road traffic regulations are strictly enforced to the letter by giving the police independent role to enforce law and order on the roads since that is their constitutional mandate to ensure that Liberia is safe for all and sundry.