Don’t kill that pedestrian, kill your careless driving !!!

Sometimes life can leave the bleak revelations, which gruesomely pinch dark memories day after day on the minds of people. I have witnessed several occurrences of feign shocks in my life, but the memories of an accident few months ago still reverberate in my mind, and perhaps will ever continue to do so.

How this accident happened continues to be a mystery to me, but my wish is never to witness such a ruthless accident in my life again. I would not just be able to stand it! I am by no way trying to test your nerves, but I am simply painting a dark reality.

It was Thursday evening at around three to four when I was making a dash out of the Faculty building of the University of the Gambia to attend a Development Economics lecture, which was to be held a few meters away. To my shock I saw the story of my life. Few people assembled meters away on the other end of a T-shaped road.

The hullabaloo in the vicinity steered my nerves and within seconds I rushed to find out what was happening. On arrival, I could not believe what I saw. A youngman in his late twenties lay still, lifeless and breathless with blood lurking out of all parts of his body.

A few meters away from him, a bicycle stood in rumbles just in front of a car. When I asked what happened, I was told that the dead youngman was hit by an over speeding car.

Unfortunately, the youngman would be among hundreds to be killed in the Gambia and millions more  the world over; some of them young and others old, but all sharing the distinctive character of being killed in road accidents.

According to information from the World Health Organization (WHO), road accidents have become one of the leading causes of death from around the world, with most deaths registered in developing countries. This information further indicates that an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide each year are killed by accidents, and about forty times this number are as well injured.

Statistics further reveal that car collision fatalities have reduced significantly since 1980 as most countries have shown a reduction of roughly 50% . This drop indicates the efficacy of safety measures introduced thereafter, assuming that the behavior of drivers has not changed much, thereby giving reasons for why our roads continue to claim more and more lives.

Road accidents and the attendant impacts have an immense economic impact on the globe especially on Africa. This stark reality is confirmed by a report of the WHO in 2003, when it stated that ‘Mortality rate from road traffic accident injuries in Africa is the highest in the world, costing the Region $7.3 billion or 1% of its Gross Domestic Product annually’, depriving other social sectors much needed resources.

The report also confirmed that "In the year 2000, in the Africa Region alone, an estimated 725,000 people died as a result of injuries, accounting for 7% of all deaths in Africa and 15% of worldwide injury-related deaths, with most victims being children and youths.

All these deaths continue to happen despite sensitization and intense resource spending to eradicate the menace. Sadly, as statistics show, it is not paying much dividend, thus raising fears that our roads will continue to claim more and more lives.

The continuous deaths on our roads have raised questions that have been raised over and over again in the past few years; what are the causes of road accidents, and why do our roads continue to claim more and more lives?

One needs not however, wonder and ponder much to come to the bottom of this question. As it is visibly clear, the most common causes of road accidents are due to careless drivings. Such factors as excessive alcohol consumption, under-utilization of seat belts and child restraints, unsafe vehicular design, poor maintenance of vehicles, insufficient training of vehicle users, and a lack of implementation of road safety guides are the most common causes of road accidents.

However, the most pronounced among all these is over speeding. Most drivers seem to be harbored in a reckless attitude of speeding both in minor and major roads. The intensity of over speeding on our roads only helps to reverberate road concerns.

Standing around the Kombo Costal road or any major road in the country, one is at times forced to wonder whether there is a formula one race being held in the Gambia. This is because of the ruthless ways in which our drivers plight our roads. Over speeding cars in some instances miss hitting people only by the stroke of luck, mostly without remorse even after coming so close to claiming innocent lives.

It would however be illogical to heap all the blame for the road accidents on drivers alone. If anything, the mishaps of accidents are caused by drivers as much as they are caused by pedestrians and passengers. Drivers have for long asserted that the behavior of pedestrians on the roads contributes to accidents.

As one driver told society, ‘in the past, a pedestrian would give a distance to the road and would look on their left and right before crossing any road. But today, it is the other way round. Instead of people running away from cars, it is cars that run away from people.’

Maybe the driver was just looking for a scapegoat to heap the blame on the occurrence of accidents on, but he had some element of truth in his statements. Indeed, very few pedestrians today check their left and right before crossing roads. Furthermore, probably fewer people even care to give space when walking along the roads.

As once noted however, there is no problem without a solution. In the case of reckless drivings on our roads and the innocent lives they have claimed, it would be wise to suggest that Gambian solutions are needed to curb such problems in The Gambia. This is because some of the solutions initiated in the past have not worked probably because they are not in line with our Gambian social realities.

Take for instance the sensitization campaigns in this light. It seems that most campaigns concentrate on the drivers and neglect pedestrians. Even those conducted on drivers are done through a top-down approach instead of a down top approach. This limits the involvement of drivers and consequently, hampers the ability of the message to filter down to drivers at the grass root.

According to the WHO, sensitization messages should center on awareness-raising programmes on injury and violence prevention; development and implementation of pertinent information systems; prioritization of research to bridge information gaps, and build partnerships with appropriate stakeholders. Such partnerships would serve to increase the visibility of injury and violence prevention as a priority, and to coordinate activities for prevention and control.

The WHO adds: "While much can be achieved by grassroots organizations, individuals and institutions, the success of public health efforts ultimately depends on political commitment. This is as vital at the national level, where policy, legislative and overall funding decisions are made, as it is at the provincial district, and at the municipal levels where responsibility of day-to-day administration of policies and programmes rest."

Further measures to curb the menace of reckless driving could include; imposing curfews on young drivers to prevent them driving at night; inexperience drivers being supervised by the experienced; forbidding the overloading of cars; initiating legislation which condemns drunk-driving and facilitate advanced and strict driving courses.

But the prevention of careless driving on our roads and the subsequent reduction of mortalities it must be emphasized, depends on drivers, pedestrians and passengers realizing the fact that our roads are constructed to facilitate transportation and communications and not to claim innocent lives.

The government has done its duty by constructing good roads. It is therefore the responsibility of those who use them to  do so wisely. Life is precious and must be protected at all cost!!!