Why more people die in 2015

Now if the truth must be told, more people may die, more crashes may occur and many more may sustain injuries and become crippled in 2015 compared to 2014. More children may die also, not because they desire to, but because of certain events and attitudes beyond their control. Families may perish in lone or […]

Now if the truth must be told, more people may die, more crashes may occur and many more may sustain injuries and become crippled in 2015 compared to 2014. More children may die also, not because they desire to, but because of certain events and attitudes beyond their control. Families may perish in lone or multiple crashes.
We would lose precious Nigerians not just because of road traffic crashes but because of the absence of adequate post-crash facilities as the economic challenges will definitely affect the on-going commendable efforts by government to keep our roads in good shape with the provision of appropriate infrastructure that make for safe driving and effective road traffic management.
As a nation, we would suffer similar pains as professionals and individuals whose inputs the nation would need badly as we strive to build a better society, would also be killed.
Tales of woes and the trauma that follows will linger. Not because God declares it so. But because of the choice we will make and have been making daily in the past years as we ply the nation’s highways. Some will end up disabled for life either through the increasing recklessness of convoy drivers, the madness by commercial drivers, whose antics we are confident of checking through the soon to be enforced speed limiting devices from June this year or the other madness called Okada, whose operators despite on-going enforcement by the Corps and restrictions by some state governors, have since 2009 played deaf to the compulsory use of safety helmet in connivance with commuters.
Others may die or be maimed through crashes that may be caused by abandoned vehicles or as a result of burst tyres or vehicles with mechanical deficiencies coupled with bad driving or irresponsible driving such as excessive speeding, use of phone while driving, driving against traffic, driving under the influence alcohol and drugs, just to mention a few.
Without a crystal ball to peep at, the government’s introduced austerity measures in the wake of the fall in global oil prices will have its rippling effects on our collective commitment to keep deaths off our roads in 2015.
For the records, the federal government announced far reaching measures to deal with the crashing crude oil prices, cutting 2015 oil benchmark from $78 to $65 per barrel. Crude oil (Nigeria’s major export) prices dropped below $52 per barrel this week lowerthan the benchmark proposed to the National Assembly for the 2015 budget.
The decision to cut revenue projection, according to the Coordinating Minister for the  Economic and Minister of Finance, is part of measures designed to maintain economic stability, boost  non-oil revenues, plug loopholes and waste, as well as cut unnecessary expenditures in order to cope with this reality.
Part of this economic challenge is the devaluation of the naira, which in effect will make things more difficult for the average Nigerians because their purchasing power will diminish. The resultant effect will be poor maintenance attitude, an upsurge in the number of rickety vehicles, increased use of fairly used or Tokunbo tyres, in addition to an increase in the number of commercial vehicles as part measures by some citizens to break even.
Overloading which is being tackled by the Corps will increase as drivers will see it as a strategy to increase revenue without a thought on the effect of overloading on the wear and tear of the vehicle. Before this challenge reared its ugly face in late 2014, all of these were some major challenges.
With falling revenue, support for road safety initiatives from the private sector, which in the last years had risen to become a trusted partner in the Corps’ drive to make a difference, may wane while states, except for a few like Lagos which before now had a disappointing posture towards road safety, will hide under the economic challenge to turn down entreaties to demonstrate responsiveness to matters of road safety.
Safety practitioners’ commitment to their calling to save lives may  wane in keeping with the same good book which says that men will become lovers of what is bad and haters of what is good.
These are not prophecies, but realities and projections based on our attitude to always wish misfortunes away or reject them, if not out rightly binding them without borrowing a leave from the same good book which says “faith without works is dead.”
Now if you still wish to slaughter me for this piece, let me remind you that Africa is still experiencing the highest per capita rate of road traffic crash fatalities in the World. The Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013 estimates the rate of road traffic deaths at 24.1 per 100,000 people in Africa. By comparison, this rate is 18.5 in Asia and 10.3 in Europe.
The region possesses 2 percent of the world’s vehicles, 12 percent of the population, and 16 percent of the fatalities. Nigeria and South Africa according to this report, have the highest fatality cases with WHO projecting that road traffic fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 112 percent from approximately 243,000 in 2015 to  514,000 in 2030, an increase said by the WHO to be a far greater increase  than any other region in the World.
Within this period, WHO projects that road fatalities will overtake malaria fatalities in the region within the same time.
 To redress this, WHO articulates the need for a system based response through increased prominence to institutional management and capacity issues, stating that: “a key factor in tackling the growing road traffic injury burden is the creation of institutional capacity across a range of interlinking sectors, backed by both strong political commitment and adequate resources and sustainable resources.”
There is no doubt that the present government has demonstrated strong political will in supporting road safety strategies in the country. However, the current economic challenges will deal a big blow to the efforts to address the second leg of the WHO recommendation which is “adequate and sustainable resources.”
Recall also that we are in 2015 the year that we are expected to cut road traffic crash fatalities by 2015 by 50 percent across the African region following the 2007 Accra Declaration by Ministers of Transport and Healthwho resolved to as follows:
“Work together to stop the growing epidemic of deaths and injuries on our roads, promote road safety as a health, transportation, law enforcement, education, and development priority for our nations, set and achieve measurable national targets for road safety and traffic-injury prevention in all member states to contribute to the achievement of Africa’s overall targets to reduce accidents fatalities by half by 2015.”