If there is a Nigerian version of ‘1000 ways to die’ television series, the recreated incidents of how hapless Nigerians meet their death when unlatched containers fall will be on your screen.
Road accidents remain prevalent. A World Health Organization (WHO) news report of the Fifth United Nations Global Road Safety Week claimed that over 39,000 Nigerians die from road crashes every year.
A Premium Times report, drawn from the data made available by FRSC in 2019, also estimated that an average of 12 people dies daily in road accidents across Nigeria.
There have been several efforts to define the causes of these accidents; reckless driving, bad roads, and overload have in the past been identified.
The new form is, arguably, unlatched containers falling off the flatbed trailers carrying them, causing permanent disabilities or deaths to ill-fated Nigerians who find themselves at spots where the incidents were bound to happen.
Such is the case of Chidinma Ajoku and her friend, Chima Nnaekpe. On the 27TH of July, 2020, Chidinma and her friend were home-bound on a commercial bus, after another day at work.
Unfortunately, as reported, a reckless driver helped a 20 feet container detach from the relationship it had with the truck driver at Lasamaja bus-stop along the Oshodi- Apapa expressway, ipso facto, landing right on the bus which Chidinma and her friend boarded.
That was how the lives of two “leaders of tomorrow” were cut short.
Another Example of a Bloodthirsty Container in Anambra
Guardian Newspaper, on the 9th of June 2020, reported the death of six people.
The report read “The Anambra State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Andrew Kumapayi, on Tuesday confirmed the death of six people as a container fell on vehicles along Awka-Onitsha expressway”.
“Kumapayi, who confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka, said the brakes of a trailer carrying a 20ft container failed, and the driver lost control of the vehicle, which fell on six others”.
The Containers Take Body Parts Too
When containers fall off a truck, if they fail to take lives, they leave people with varying degrees of disabilities or injuries.
In February, the Vanguard newspaper reported a perfect example. The headline was “Container falls, cuts off woman’s leg at Iyana-Ipaja” and the devasting message broke in the first paragraph: “a yet to be identified woman narrowly escaped death, Saturday evening, when a container that fell off a truck on Iyana Ipaja Bridge, landed on her leg, cutting the foot off”.
How Reprehensible and Deplorable Acts of Some Truck Drivers are Putting The Lives of Many at Risk.
Containers do not drive themselves. Hence, it is pertinent to ask why containers keep falling off the back of trucks.
Speaking with Ajayi Idowu, an experienced driver of over 18 years who resides in Ogun state, he told HSENations in a Yoruba interview that “the rising cases of fallen containers are faults of truck drivers who do not latch their container properly to their trucks and it is further accelerated by reckless driving”.
While speaking to the Spokesman of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Bisi Kazeem, HSENations, found out that reckless driving is not the only cause of container incidents.
Mr. Bola revealed that some truck drivers devised a dubious means of saving their lives and their vehicle at the expense of other people’s lives.
He said, “Our findings showed that if a trailer is unlatched and the container falls, the vehicle does not fall; but, when the vehicle is latched and the container falls, both fall; So, it is like they want to save their vehicles at the risk of other people’s lives. We will not allow that”.
How FRSC Is Planning To Curb the New Form of Death
Mr. Bisi told HSENations that the body has identified the growing menace and are taking steps to annihilate the act, including setting up a mobile court.
He opined that the body has signed an MoU with the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) to ensure that flatbed trailers with unlatched containers are not permitted to move.
He added that “the corps marshals have directed that another meeting is held with NPA MD so that (the MOU) can be enforced”.
He hinted that the commanding officers in Lagos and Oyo State had a meeting to ensure that defaulters carrying containers that are not latched will face the full wrath of the law in a mobile court that will be set up.
“You will see an enforcement team of both Lagos State Command and Oyo State Command and with all the complement commands along that axis working assiduously from now, until we root this kind of unfortunate incidents”, he concluded.
