Much ado about ‘ember months’
According to the Edo Sector Command of the FRSC, this slope which careers sharply into the river has between January and August this year, accounted for 27 road crashes and 10 deaths with 8 fatal and 18 serious cases of road carnage, the recent being 4 University don’s . These gloomy reflections were the pre-occupations […]
According to the Edo Sector Command of the FRSC, this slope which careers sharply into the river has between January and August this year, accounted for 27 road crashes and 10 deaths with 8 fatal and 18 serious cases of road carnage, the recent being 4 University don’s .
These gloomy reflections were the pre-occupations on the mind of Alhaji Adekunle as he lay bedridden in his room with feeling of relief after surviving a near fatal lone crash which resulted into spinal cord injuries. Within the last 11 months, he has passed through the Doctor’s surgical knives 5 times with scars which only bring back unpleasant memories.
With occasional grunts; he recounts the painful experience of November 2011 which according to him was an unforgettable day of his life. A day which puts an abrupt end to all his plans and then confined him to a solitary bed and has to move with the aid of one of his children, Kunle who has virtually stopped going to school in order to attend to his father’s needs.
According to Adekunle “I had almost passed Katsina-Ala when I heard a sudden sound which was followed by a burst tire and the next thing I saw was the bus skidding off the road. I woke up later on a hospital bed with a strange numb feeling on my left leg. The nurse later told me that I was brought in by concerned Nigerians together with some of my passengers who were involved in the near fatal accident and now, I can no longer use my left leg. It is very painful.” he said.
Also recounting an unpleasant experience during a trip from the Kaduna Mando park at exactly 7.30pm in October of last year, Miss Ephraim Bassey; a tomato seller who trades on perishable food items at the popular Uyo Central market, recalled from her hospital bed in Abuja that “the fatal crash which claimed 7 lives and left 4 other passengers in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit of Unity Clinic at Kubwa, could have been averted if the driver had noticed the worn-out tyre on his vehicle before the night trip which has left me with a severe neck and back injury that made it difficult for me to sit down for too long. It was very ghastly and I was lucky to have lived through it.” she explained.
A common feature between Adekunle and Ephraim’s near death experiences is the fact that both are hinged on the fact that both accidents occurred during the period which most people referred to as the ember month’s period.
The Ember months are usually referred to the calendar months of September to December. These are the months during which a higher incidence of deaths and injuries through road traffic accidents due to the increased number of road users in the run up to the festive seasons are usually recorded. As usual, the Federal Road Safety Corps has initiated a novel strategy towards inculcating safety consciousness in road users across the country through the flag-off of a week-long robust public advocacy, intensive patrols and rescue services devoid of enforcement with the theme: “Attitude, the Change we need to reduce Road Crashes”. According to the FRSC Spokesman, Corps Commander Jonas Agwu “the reason for rolling out our annual safety awareness campaign drums in this manner is to tell motorists that road safety is the collective responsibility of everybody, so we decided to remove payment of fines by traffic offenders from our operational activities for the week in order to elicit acceptable traffic conduct from road users the weeks ahead and throughout the ember season”.
Most worrisome is the generally held misconception which ascribes the spate of road crashes during the ember season to the activities of some spiritual forces which operate on designated routes of the nation’s highways with the primary motive of ‘sucking human blood” through road carnages which often result to untimely death of drivers and passengers of “targeted” vehicles plying the highways.
But while debunking these claims, Commander Jonas Agwu explained that “the insinuations that road traffic accidents are caused by spiritual forces is laughable and unfounded. The fact remains that over ninety percent of road traffic accidents are due to human causes. We have drivers who will refuse to obey traffic rules and regulations, drivers who despite the fact that they know the dangerous consequences, will still go ahead and buy tokunbo tires and indulge in alcohol while driving. So it is a combination of these factors that are responsible for the accidents you see on the roads and not any spiritual forces. Added to this trend is the reluctance of most drivers to do the routine morning checks on their vehicles before leaving home.”
It then follows that attitudinal syndrome remains a determinant factor towards safer road use in Nigeria. Little wonder, the FRSC Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, Osita Chidoka will always assert that “bad use of the road and not bad roads lead to road crashes” meaning that the driver’s acts of omission have a direct bearing to road crashes.
In trying to elucidate on the traffic peculiarities associated with the ember season, this week’s piece will try to look at vehicle condition and vehicle accessories which will no doubt, equip vehicle owners with adequate knowledge on maintenance and proper use of vehicles in order to reduce avoidable road crashes, especially during the ember season.
Ohaeri Osondu, Mnipr, Fcai, Media Officer, FRSC Headquarters, Abuja