How pedestrians face risks on major roads in Kano

Pedestrians in the city of Kano face risks on daily basis while trying to cross major roads and highways. This is due to lack of pedestrian bridges

By Gambo S. Nababa

Pedestrians in the city of Kano face risks on daily basis while trying to cross major roads and highways. This is due to lack of pedestrian bridges, despite the gamut of flyovers and or underpass bridges in the city to ease vehicular movement. The risks have assumed an alarming magnitude as people, especially women, children, elderly people with disabilities as well as patients find it difficult to use the few available ones because they are not user-friendly. Daily Trust on Sunday highlights residents’ encounters as well as accident and death cases on some major roads occasioned by the dearth of overhead bridges.

Within a decade, Kano State Government has built a number of flyovers and underpass bridges to address traffic and ease vehicular movement within the city.

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Findings by our correspondent indicated  that the state government  spent billions of naira on the construction of flyovers in the city.  According to government officials, the Kofar Mata to Murtala Mohammed Way Flyover cost N15.28 billion, while Hotoro roundabout flyover was awarded at N20 billion.

But despite these laudable efforts,  there is little concern to provide pedestrian bridges to guarantee safety of pedestrians  that cross major roads and highways in the state.

With a metro area population of over 4 million residents at 2.6% growth rate as indicated by macrotrends.net statistics, Kano is the second city with the highest population density in the country. While government is committed to provision of  adequate flyovers to address traffic congestion, pedestrians are left at the mercy of vehicles and other automobiles that ply the flyovers and highways within the city.

Elderly people, women, students face more risks

On most major roads, there are no pedestrian bridges to ease crossing by wayfarers. Where they exist, women, children, elderly people, patients, people with disabilities find it difficult to use them as they are not user- friendly.

“One day, I was almost hit by a reckless driver who refused to slow down for me to cross the road,” said an elderly woman, Rabi, who crossed the ever-busy Gwarzo Road in the state metropolis.

Rabi, who was on her way to visit a patient at UMC Hospital at the Red Brick Quarters along the road, told Daily Trust on Sunday  that if she had been knocked down, “police would simply complete papers and I would become history.”

Hundreds of pedestrians, our correspondent gathered, had had Rabi’s experience  on daily basis along the same (Gwarzo) road as well as other major highways in the state, especially at areas where there are concentrations of schools, markets, motor parks and hospitals. While some victims of the road crashes were lucky to sustain minor injuries, others paid the ultimate price.  

 

Our correspondent gathered that a number of Bayero University Kano (BUK) staff and students had been knocked down by vehicles while trying to cross the busy highway. A staffer of the BUK Nursery School, Baba Amadu, lost his life while crossing after closing from work.  In June last year, a 200-Level student in the Department of Accounting, Moshood Kamaluddeen, also lost his life after being hit by a fast moving vehicle on the road.

After the incident, the university released a statement through its spokesperson, Lamara Garba, begging the Federal Ministry of Works to construct a pedestrian bridge near the main gate of the new campus.

Garba said that the university management had, earlier in the year made a submission to the ministry on the urgent need to construct the bridge with a view to ensuring safety of the students in crossing the trunk “A” highway that passes by the side of the university.

Data from the Kano State Senior Secondary School Management Board (KSSSSMB) indicated that there are 171 senior secondary schools spread across eight metropolitan local governments areas with 340,481 students in the city.

Also, statistics from the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEEB) have shown that there are 1,805 public pre-primary and primary schools in the state with 1,220,306 enrolments, out of which 632,651 are female pupils.

Most of the public schools within the metropolitan area are densely populated with students. Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Kadawa, in Ungogo Local Government Area has 6,271 students; Government Arabic College, Gwale, has 5,781 enrollment, while Government Girls Secondary School, Tudun Bujuwa, in Fagge Local Government has 5,270 students.  Majority of the students cross roads and highways to get to their schools within the city.

Similarly, there are hundreds and thousands of private schools students who also cross major roads to get to their schools as many of the schools are located along highways in the city.

Muhamamad Mas’ud, a trader who sells animal feeds at Dorawar ’Yan Kifi, said dualization of the Gwarzo Road had reduced frequent accidents as a result of reckless crossing of roads by pedestrians.  

He called on government to construct pedestrian bridges on highways to ease crossing of roads by people, especially students who ply the ever busy Gwarzo Road on daily basis to their various schools within the area.

Mrs Ogwuche Jane is the Principal of Musa Iliasu College, a private school situated along the road.  She said it had not been easy for students to cross the highway.

She added that three teachers and two students of the school had been hit by vehicles at different times and left with minor injuries, while crossing the road to the school.

Jane also said that even when parents assisted  their children to cross the road, some reckless drivers would not consider them.

“Some drivers are saying that pedestrians should wait until they are done with their speeding. Therefore, with a pedestrian bridge, I believe things will be easier for the students and the parents,” she said.

Abbas Ibrahim, a security guard who controls traffic for students at Al-Azhar School, Kano, said he had encountered two challenges while assisting students to cross the highway.

“The gap with which grown up students  can cross roads is different from that of younger ones. I always have a divided mind in trying to ensure that moving vehicles stop when pedestrians want to cross. Pupils can only enter the highway when there is enough gap for them to cross,”  Ibrahim said.  

Sagir Iliyasu, one of those who have also volunteered to assist travellers, especially women and children to cross Zaria Road to get to Kano Line Motor Park, lamented the lack of a pedestrian bridge around the park. He called on government to construct one as soon as possible.

“The height of the bridge should be moderate so that people can ascend and descend without panic,” she said.

Findings by our correspondent indicated that outside the city, there are spots that record frequent accidents involving pedestrians. Early last year, residents of Wudil Town called on government to provide a lasting solution to the incessant accidents along the Yobe-Damaturu Expressway by constructing a pedestrian bridge at the main gate of Kano University of Science and Technology (KUST). The community expressed worries over frequent tragic road accidents  which have claimed the lives of residents and students at the spot called “death-point.”

We sensitize people to respect road signage – FRSC 

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kano Sector Command is educating and sensitizing people on road symbols and the need to respect traffic rules in the city.

The Sector Commander, Corps Commander Zubairu Mato, said: “We are always on the print and electronic media sensitizing people. We also sent letters to imams and pastors with a view to educating their congregations to respect road signage. At the local government level, there are at least three officers who educate residents on how to observe traffic rules, control the traffic and attend to crashes.”

“We have established road safety clubs in many schools. Corps members are usually posted to schools as safety ambassadors. Some schools also come to the state sector command on excursion where they receive lectures on how to cross the roads, children tips on crashes as well as how they should advise their parents and guardians when they ignore road signage. Road safety has also been encompassed in the schools’ curriculums in Integrated Science and Civic Education,” he added.

Although the command has not completed computing statistics on the number of people involved in crashes while crossing roads or being knocked down at zebra crossing, the sector commander said preliminary findings indicated that throughout last year, the command did not record more than six crashes involving pedestrians trying to cross roads in the city.

Mato said that in one of the security meetings at the state government house, the sector command made a request on the need to provide more pedestrian bridges in the city. “At the meeting, the executive governor directed that a committee should be formed, comprising the Ministry of Works and Transport, KAROTA and KARMA to suggest how the bridges ccould be provided. I don’t know whether the committee has finished the assignment,”  he said.

 

Inadequate road signage, absence of bus stops

Findings by our correspondent showed that while the FRSC is sensitizing the public on the need to respect road signage, there are inadequate road symbols and an absence of bus stops in the city.

“Drivers operating within the Kano city can comfortably drive, courtesy of their knowledge of the road network in the city. But that is not possible for travellers and visitors as there is absence of road signage to guide vehicular movements on most roads in the metropolitan area,” said Malam Ibrahim, a motorist.

“I heard that mass transit shuttle buses have also started plying roads in the city. But there are no designated bus stops where commuters can gather and board buses,” he said.

Mato admitted that road signs that gave directions within a megacity like Kano did not exist in the state.

“Where they exist, they are either inappropriate or wrongly installed,” he stressed.

It was against this backdrop, he said, the Command “made a presentation to the ministry in respect to road signage and we are waiting for their response.”

We’ll construct  two bridges in the city – FG

The federal government has promised to build two pedestrian bridges in the city. The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made the promise last week while commissioning some newly completed road projects at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH).

“The federal government will build pedestrian bridges at the entrance gates of the BUK and the AKTH to reduce accident rates around the two institutions,” he said.

The minister, who was represented by the Federal Controller of Works in the state, Engr Yahaya Baba-Ali, also said the bridges to be built along Gwarzo Road and Zaria Road would reduce accident rates and assist pedestrians, especially patients and students to cross the highways without difficulty.

Ensuring safety during and after construction

Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that in April 2015, the Kano State Government awarded pedestrian bridge contracts in some selected areas in the city.  But they were suspended, following the collapse of one of the bridges under construction which killed seven people at Dorayi Quarters.

Dr. Muttaka Na’iya Ibrahim of the Department of Civil Engineering, BUK, advised that before engineering facilities were provided, there should be a strict adherence to design and construction practices to ensure safety.

The transport engineering professional added: “There are standard guidelines to carry out a construction process. The first thing is the plan. There should be a plan for the bridge and concerning the planning, there should be input data for the design. The design is the second stage and then the next stage is the construction process. There should also be quality control regarding the standard of material to be used.”

Dr. Ibrahim further suggested that to make the pedestrian bridge user-friendly, entrances and exits of the facility should be easy to access, clearly visible to the users and be separated from vehicular traffic.

He also stressed the need to provide guardrails at both edges of the bridge and provision of adequate lighting, particularly at night hours.

“The bridge should be constructed to accommodate different age groups, children, middle age and elderly people. Elderly people have lower walking speeds. They walk slowly. The height, which we called raiser, should be constructed based on standard size.

“Regarding durability, there should be a regular inspection to check for any deficiency of the facility and take appropriate action to amend and ensure regular maintenance,” he said.

No response from state government

Efforts to get the response of the Kano State Government proved abortive as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructural Development, Engr Idris Wada Saleh, neither responded to phone calls nor replied to text messages sent to him.