By Franklin Sisabu Bendu
I am a member of the United Methodist Church, Sierra Leone Annual Conference. Just over a year ago, our faiths were tested by the tragic accident that led to the death of our Bishop, the late Bishop John K. Yambasu. The Bishop had left his home in Freetown on Sunday 16 August 2020 for Yonibana, to attend the funeral service of one of his Pastors. He never made it outside Freetown. Another vehicle rammed into his jeep and killed him. Just like that, the UMC Sierra Leone Annual Conference lost its Spiritual Leader. His death left me and thousands of others who knew him, devastated, distraught and confused. How can a man of God, whom I know would have prayed before leaving home, die in such a gruesome way? As a Christian, my belief was tested, but my faith told me to believe it was God’s time. As a church, we continue to mourn our dear Bishop Yamabasu. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Fast forward to the night of Friday, 5 November 2021. Wellington, Freetown. Different location. Different context. But there was a striking similarity between the Friday night incident and that fateful day in August. Like in August, one vehicle had run into the other, causing death in the process. On Friday night, a truck rammed into a fuel tanker. Fuel started leaking from the tanker. Disaster ensued. Another shocking similarity between the August accident and the fuel tanker accident is that reckless driving was at the heart of the disaster. This time, it’s worse in scale and scope. Over 100 people killed from the ensuing fire which engulfed and smothered almost anyone and everyone in its path. The deceased included hapless bystanders and passersby, passengers, traders as well as unemployed and desperate youths who went to the tanker to scoop leaking inflammable fuel from the tanker.
Earlier on Sunday, 7 November, 2021, a close friend of mine, Chukwu-Emeka-Chikezie (familiarly called Chux) shared an insightful piece which highlights some of the possible areas we need to examine, in the aftermath of this national disaster. He posed some compelling questions, which I hope those in authority or with authority should look at and try to find answers to. He also made some strong recommendations including the need for all Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGVs) to have the necessary protective features while plying our roads across the country. But as we digest Chux’s piece, we mourn the tragic loss of the lives of our compatriots. May God rest their souls and may their respective families and loved ones muster the courage and strength to deal with such calamitous loss.
I have referred to the two incidents for a reason. Firstly, I believe it is time for all the institutions responsible for regulating and supervising our roads to unshackle themselves from the usual and the regular. We need to see some difference and some proactivity. Majority of the accidents that occur across the country are preventable. We do not know the scale of the problem because many of these accidents go unreported, unnoticed, and unrecorded. And that, I dare say, is the beginning of our problems.
While writing this piece, I attempted to check the websites of the various institutions that ought to have data on road accidents or road-related incidents. I was blinded by the emptiness of recent data on their respective websites. To say I was disappointed could be an understatement. The only data of the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority (SLRSA) website is for 2020 and even that is on sex, type of road, age and injuries. No data on type of vehicles involved in the accidents. This lack of information is troubling for several reasons. Principal among these, in my view, is the fact that the absence of regular and almost accurate information to the public means we do not take the issue of road safety seriously. It also means we devalue the lives of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. People act on what they know. If they don’t have information about the number of road accident deaths that occur daily, there is a slim chance of them giving road safety the important attention it deserves.
The fatal incident that took place at Wellington prompted a number of thoughts and some recommendations I would like to share with the institutions and authorities in charge of our roads, our safety and our lives.
Digital licenses and points system
The Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority is making strides to improve road safety in the country. However, what I see in most cases are traffic wardens checking for the validity of licenses (also done by the Sierra Leone Police) and clamping of vehicles for illegal parking. There is more to road safety than recruiting traffic wardens and clamping vehicles. Road-user education should take precedence in educating drivers and riders about the importance of safe driving. It is also imperative that SLRSA should prioritize the digitization of licenses. This will significantly reduce the time wasted in proving whether a driver or rider has a valid driving license. Using an app that is linked to the database, traffic wardens and traffic police will be able to check electronically for valid licenses. In advance countries, a point deduction penalty is applied to a drivers’ license holder for both minor traffic offenses and major ones – it ranges from a fine to a jail time or even a ban from driving for a period of time. More importantly, it is time the SLRSA made sure vehicles plying the road were roadworthy. I urge management of SLRSA to take some time and just stand at Ferry Junction or the Lumley-Goderich route to see for themselves the death traps parading as vehicles plying our roads.
Poorly-constructed roads
Permit me to share two examples of my personal experience of how a system should work, to prevent unnecessary accidents and deaths. These are examples from other countries. In 2012, I was attending a four-week training at Duke University in the United States of America. My former classmate at Fourah Bay College, Mohamed Bailley lived in Durham so he would pick me up in the evenings to go for a ride. Within the campus, there is an intersection where he would momentarily stop. As far as I was concerned, there was no need to stop as he could see clearly around him. After four days of this routine, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked him why he would always stop at the intersection when there was no other vehicle approaching.
Mohamed responded that the white paint on the line close to the intersection meant he had to bring the car to a complete halt and look around for any other car which had the right of way. He said that if he failed to do that and he was caught, there would be a point deduction on his license.
The next one happened to my brother, Francis Santigie Bendu, who taught me how to drive and whom I regard as an expert driver. He migrated to the USA and after some months went for an examination to secure a drivers’ license. On his examination ride, the car he was driving with the examiner in it came to a stop at the traffic light. My brother stopped but the front tyre was touching the white painting on the road. The examiner came down, looked at the car and told my brother that he had failed the test. Another examination meant another payment. These two instances show how systems work even without enforcement officials on the road.
I have brought these instances to illustrate why institutions such as the Road Maintenance Fund Administration (RMFA), the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) and the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority (SLRSA) have all failed in their responsibilities to make our roads safe for drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
The statutory role of the Road Maintenance Fund Administration (RMFA) is “to create a Sierra Leone with a premium road network for socio-economic growth”, whereas the Sierra Leone Roads Authority is responsible for managing the road network. Since the formation of the RMFA, the role of the SLRA is now mainly focused on supervising the construction of roads throughout the country. In saying that, some of the roads in Freetown are so badly done that you wonder what the SLRA was doing. At the Hill Cot roundabout, two vehicles coming from Hill Station cannot exit at the same time towards Wilberforce. The same can be said of the S-gate roundabout where two vehicles cannot exit at the same time towards King Harman Road. Another case of poor road construction and ineffective supervision is the stretch of road between Hill Cut Junction to Hill Station. That road is less than 10 years old but the speed humps along that short stretch makes it look like a 40-year-old road. It was rehabilitated again earlier this year. This is clearly a poor job for which the company should be made to do a proper upgrade.
In 2020, the former Minister of Finance announced that Government would be rehabilitating 41 critical roads right across the country. The Director General of the SLRA promised that his institution would ensure the contractors work within the stipulated time in the agreement, ensure quality, and manage the cost element. My hope is that the Sierra Leone Roads Authority will provide effective supervision and ensure these roads are of good quality. Furthermore, there should be some element of road markings and signs in these contracts which will provide some form of education for road users.
Critical intersections in our road networks lack clear markings to indicate who has the right of way. Drivers are left to determine that for themselves and in the event, there is an accident, the police will have to determine who was at fault. All the roundabouts in Freetown – Kingtom, Cotton Tree, Hill Cut, Wilberforce, Congo Cross, Aberdeen, Family Kingdom, Up Gun, Cline Town, East End Police, Lumley Police Station, Safecon Lumley, S-gate, King Harman road, Hill station – all lack clear markings as to who should wait and who has the right of way. Clearly, leaving such discretions to drivers is a recipe for accidents. The SLRSA, RMFA and SLRA need to ensure government resources are used efficiently and that means ensuring the roads constructed are of the highest quality and are safe to use.
Road worthiness of various forms of transportation
Another cause for concern plying the roads in the country is the road worthiness of cars, jeeps, trucks, kekehs and okadas. What is shocking is that most of these vehicles pass right in front of police officers and traffic wardens and it’s as if they look the other way, to the detriment of other road users. The trucks plying the Queen Elizabeth II Quay and the sand trucks are a classic case in point. These trucks are a danger to road users but the institutions responsible for regulating and supervising road safety have been derelict in their duty in banning such trucks from plying our roads.
Some of these trucks carrying sand to various construction sites around Freetown should not be on the road. Many of them drive around the city with no functional traffic lights, posing life-threating risk to anyone driving towards or behind them. Their road worthiness should be seriously and vigorously scrutinized before they are allowed to operate. One wonders how such trucks end up getting certified as roadworthy by SLRSA.
Looking at some of the trucks and the containers (20ft and 40ft), it is incredible that we should allow them to use ropes and chains to move containers. Standards should be set for trucks carrying containers outside the port facility. On Saturday, August 22, 2020, people leaving beyond Funkia Junction must have seen the horrible picture of a car lying crushed under a shipping container.
This resulted in long queues on both sides of the road. Thankfully, the driver in the car came out unscathed. However, imagine the sadness of someone losing their life because the haulage truck was unable to climb the hill towards Femi Turner Junction. We are looking at the accident but we should ask the institution providing licenses to such vehicles why on earth is such vehicle on the road? A close inspection will show the container was not even tied and the haulage truck did not have the hooks to hold the container firmly. The usual “nar satan cause am” excuse has outlived its usefulness.
Reckless driving, lawless riding and the perils of normal road users
Most of our commercial drivers (Poda poda and taxi drivers), Okada and Kekeh riders are the epitome of lawless and reckless driving. Their recklessness in driving can primarily be attributed to the lack of punitive measures by those responsible for road use. They can drive at breakneck speed with little regard for pedestrians or other road users.
Although I really appreciated the presence of the military at Lumley in 2020, I am yet to grapple with the idea that the Sierra Leone Police are unable to control vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Unfortunately, as soon as the military personnel left the Lumley area, lawless driving resumed and in full view of the Police and Traffic Wardens.
The Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Police, the Judiciary, the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, Sierra Leone Ports Authority and the Motor Drivers’ Union should all work together in making our roads safer. Accidents are bound to happen but having clear road markings, continuous road-user education, modernization of license database linked to the Sierra Leone Police, proper road tests for cars, vehicles, trucks and implementing the rule of law will go a long way to make out roads safer and, in the process, save lives.
Our institutions regulating and supervising the road sector should be doing better.
Copyright (c) 2021 Politico Online
