Road accidents: A new road safety protocol to the rescue

WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER

info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com

I have dutifully resisted the strong urge to offer my contribution to the latest national controversy which keeps generating concerns, growing analyses, opinions, and anger. I’m referring to the unexpected turn of event’s in Rivers state, culminating in the declaration of a state of emergency and the now contentious suspension of all elected offices in the state. Of course, in due time, I hope to do a holistic, unbiased analysis of the event another time; but today, I will be offering my insight on the urgent need for the rejuvenation of the Federal Road Safety Commission, to address the worrisome and increasing incidents of road accidents in the country.

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) is an agency of the Nigerian government with a critical assignment towards the realisation of safety of lives and properties of Nigerians, most especially as it relates to accidents on the national road networks. Unfortunately, regardless of the engagements of the commission, the mammoth allocations of funds to the commission, and the non-relenting services of the officers of the commission, incidences of accidents on our roads have only been on the increase, leading to excessive and unnecessary loss of lives, destruction of goods and both in most cases. The need to find a lasting solution to these unpalatable yet mitigatable events is upon all of us, as the need for FRSC to become literarily open to strategic changes in its operations cannot be over emphasised.

In the twelve months of 2024, despite all counter efforts, the country recorded 9,570 cases of accidents, affecting 70,530 people and a record of 5,421 deaths and more than 50,000 persons with severe degrees of injuries. This figure can be summarised as having 798 cases of accidents per day and recording 452 deaths and approximately 4,167 are injured, that is, accident victims every other day in the country. This is outside the sudden increase in the incidences of petrol tankers accidents and the wanton deaths that follows each of it. These figures are unbecoming and cannot be allowed to continue.

Now is the time to set the stage for a comprehensive approach to reduce road traffic incidents in the country. The time to effectively submit to the need for intervention, identify all causal factors, the current states of road safety in the country, and a focused agenda for improving road infrastructure, enforcement of safety principles and rules and others geared towards providing solutions to the menace.

To proactively design a working solution to the rising incidents of road accidents, and to reposition FRSC for maximum efficiency and delivery, a number of individual and linked factors must be addressed and a number of actionable resolutions are to be provided for the commission to complement its internal efforts. This is because, invariably, the root cause of accident is multivariate; a combination of interrelated elements that must be singly and collectively addressed. These factors can be firstly broken down broadly into the road conditions, the road users’ preparedness and the national road safety policies.

The responses must have to begin with the regulation of the road users. Not everyone should be allowed to drive a vehicle; the system must establish an effective remote regulation and control on every driver in the country on the national road networks. Ownership of vehicles must be absolutely documented and monitored. This can be achieved by a sincere overhauling of the national licensing system. We should evolve a licensing system that guarantees the proficiency of all car owners to drive safely on the road. We should return to the original system where mandatory training and acquisition of necessary certifications are mandatory before driving certificates or permits can be processed for any individual to drive on our roads. Beyond the need to leverage technology to link vehicle ownerships with necessary personal information, to streamline the process and reduce corruption and evasions of fees payment, is also the need to capture the presence of the prerequisite training readiness to drive on our roads.

The second and very important element is the need to redesign the Commissions car safety procedure. We have recorded many accidents most times because the vehicles, to begin with, are in bad shape and form and sacrosanct safety measures are outrightly ignored. For instance, we have more vehicles on the road with expired and damaged tires; and we have tire merchants selling already expired tires at reduced cost to drivers. We have vehicles on the road without proper regular maintenance. We also parade vehicles with bad braking systems, broken and cracked screens and other severe breach of critical safety protocols. It is about time FRSC changed its approach to ensuring vehicles meet required safety standards before plying our roads.

Regarding the concerns of using quality tires, it is advisable that FRSC in alliance with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) takeover the coordination of local production and import of quality roadworthy tires within and into the country, and particularly on our roads. It is also important that the Commission establishes a holistic database of all vehicles on the nation’s road networks. This database should as well engage a technology that connects every vehicle owner’s phone network, bank account or both to the FRSC system; that would allow the Commission to supply every vehicle with standard quality tires at appropriate intervals and deduct the costs over an extended period of a reasonable time as may be agreed upon either from each recharging of internet subscription data, call credits or from the bank accounts. And payment may as well include the option of an outright payment. We may however have a scenario, a solution option whereby from each one hundred naira recharge, either for internet data or call, ten naira is deducted for payment for the vehicle car tires until the payment is completed. The system would also be built in such a way that it will remotely alert both the vehicle owner and FRSC about the impending expiration of each vehicle’s respective tires – for instance, a daily or weekly or any other appropriate interval notification one month to the expiration date. With this, we would not have to be bothered with the challenges of the consequences of bad tires and their contributions to road accidents in the country. This model can as well be replicated to other critical safety components of vehicles such as the windscreen.

To achieve the aforementioned, FRSC has to build a comprehensive database of vehicles in the country, establish service centres across the 774 local governments areas, and build capacity to access the necessary components.

Another major contributor to road accidents in the country is the uncontrollable speed of vehicles by some drivers on the road. In fact, most accidents are attributed to this singular challenge. And it has become a reality that most road users are not capable of checking themselves to reduce their speed while driving. The only feasible working alternative would be the engagement of an electronic speed gauge and an automatic penalty system which aligns with global best practices, to manage over-speeding. If drivers know that every moment they exceed set speed limit on specific roads, their account will be debited on the FRSC platform and set fines would be paid on their behalf into the government purse, we are certainly going to see a remarkable drop in cases of over-speeding and accidents related to the same.

Training and retraining: continuous professional development of the FRSC personnel is not only essential but also mandatory if we are truly serious about overcoming the age-long challenge of accidents on our roads. The officers must be trained effectively in accordance to global standards and equipped to work with adequate tools that allow for effective deliveries on their job functions.  Organising programs, reforms and projects that directly respond to the challenge can only emanate from a well equipped personnel. Road users education and enlightenment, effective responses to accidents when they occur, on-the-road management of road users among other functions would only be discharged very well, when the officers are well prepared for the job.

While it must as well be known that regardless of the efforts at mitigating accidents, we cannot totally eradicate the occurrence of the menace. We must however, have in place a readymade response protocol to road accidents when they occur. It doesn’t make sense that up till now, the country’s 911 National emergency network is nonfunctional. We must ensure that the appropriate technology and facilities are put in place for the enhanced functioning of the much needed system. FRSC must collaborate essentially with the Ministry of Communication and other relevant national communication apparatus to build and active the 911 system with full coverage across the country and carry out full education and mobilisation of Nigerians to use it.

ther challenge trajectory that would then emerge once the need for a good accident response system is been considered will be the availability of first respondents at the scenes and sites of accidents. How many ambulances that are well equipped with first aids and trained first aiders can we currently boast of across the 744 local government areas of the country? Unfortunately, as at now, we only possess limited ambulances with capacity to evacuate accident victims and not enough to offer first aids services to victims. It is important that each and every local government in the country has a minimum of three fully equipped ambulances with the capacity to offer all ranges of first aids services, including blood transfusion either on site or while on transit to the nearest health delivery centres. It is equally important that FRSC collaborates with the Ministry of Health to access necessary medical databases and practitioners to complement each ambulance and effectively attend to each incident.

Effective response to accidents will, of course, also require adequate funding of an accident response program. I will suggest the creation of a national accident response fund to be contributed to by all functioning businesses with profits above a certain threshold and also all businesses operating in the transport sector of the national economy. With funding from the government and supporting funding from the private sector and well meaning private individuals, the country will bridge the capital layout deficiency that may impair the operations.

Then, we must establish a Road Accident Investigation Bureau, to be saddled with the task of forming an accident database for the country and to carry out the necessary research regarding road accidents and related matters. It will not be possible to present effective policies in response to a problem and to drive solutions, when we are limited by access to information and data as well as relevant research about the problem. For the purpose of informed-decision making, we must secure a full database of accidents in the country.

Rising incidents of road accidents in the country is a serious concern deserving concerted efforts of well-meaning Nigerians to proffer solution as it directly affect lives and the national economy and the image of the country and the government at the centre. I have offered in this piece, a few multifaceted approach to address and significantly reduce incidents of road accidents and to enhance overall road safety in Nigeria as a matter of urgency; and sustainably I am absolutely sure that the proposed elements of change, if adopted and effectively implemented, have the potential to drastically reduce the incidence of road traffic accidents and the associated human and economic costs. The licensing system overhaul, emphasis on car safety, speed control measures, improved accident response, continuous training, innovative funding mechanisms, and the establishment of a road accidents incident database (RAIB) all represent significant steps towards a safer road environment in Nigeria. However, on a final note, these suggestions can be further improved upon as may be necessary.

GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA