Causes of accidents, caution on Nigeria roads -- By Eveshotamen Joseph

  

Lies and unnecessary arguments are usually accredited to road accidents either immediately when they happen or after they happen. Although, accidents don't just happen like that, they are being caused by humans especially when moving with cars on the road. Sometimes, when these humans caused the accident, they refused to say the actual truth of what really caused the particular accident. 

What is important in every society is being able to understand the cause of an accident and adjust to the truth, accept the blame for the particular cause. We also see that many drivers don't want to really accept wrong at any time.

The major cause of accidents on  Nigeria roads is the art of driving recklessly, where the driver refused to drive consciously to see how many vehicles are coming behind and at the front but instead, the some of the Nigeria drivers prefer to always enter the road like that without a proper check before entry to the roads to avoid painful accidents. As a good driver, one has to learn how to drive carefully and gently to avoid the accident that could claim lives.

There ought to be smooth driving on the road because life is better than a dead corpse. We need to be very cautious about our driving . When driving 

Rough driving especially, driving at full speed without the application of the break. So many drivers do take unnecessary risk in terms of over speeding, while travelling, they tend to put their driving speed limit on the highest and when the  accident occurs, they begin to blame the government for not making good roads available to some extent. 

Although, the government on its own does try its best to make good roads available but sometimes when the roads are dilapidated, the body that is in charge for the monitoring, fails to   do their own work as at  when due. At times, we usually see a lot of pot holes that do cause accidents in the high ways which sometimes spring dangers on the road until it amounts to a dangerous accident nobody attends to it .

This is not supposed to be so. For instance, the recent disastrous fire accident at Oluku which has really gone viral in the world today was as a result of a pothole which was not taken care of by the citizens of the area. 

We ought to have good roads where we are free to move at any time, where no dangers come up. We need good roads that are free of accidents and we need to always be proud of our  roads, though, no road can be totally free from accidents except with proper checking and with the   grace of God on an individual to be able to overcome an accident on the road.

People sometimes wait for the government to repair roads without making efforts to ensure that a particular road is fixed . We need not to always wait for the government on anything. If we are able to do anything good  with our heart for the good of the country, let us  do and not to always wait and to wait usually cause a lot of damages  and disaster at  the end of everything.  

This is also as a result of negligence of duty to cause a big disaster that is beyond expectations. When we allow disaster to happen, the result is always huge and beyond the expectations of humans, just like the recent fire incident that happened at Oluku. Several people were feared dead following a petrol tanker explosion along the road leading to Oluku, on the outskirts of Benin City, Edo State.

Also the incident triggered a fire outbreak, reportedly destroying market goods and money belonging to several traders, leaving many market women counting their losses.

Eyewitnesses and residents said the incident occurred after a petrol-laden tanker fell on the road, allegedly due to a pothole. You can see that it is just a porthole that partly caused the fire accident due to lack of maintenance on the road . We need to always ensure proper maintenance, checking and rechecking all the time to avoid the terrible accidents that usually affect lives, like  that of Oluku.

Another thing that is  also causing accidents on the road is carelessness on the part of the citizens, where people fail to check their cars to see if they are suitable to enter the road or not. But we discover that people do not check their vehicles when going out. If the vehicles are properly checked, the dangers that follow the risk will be minimal.

It is always an adage if one has anything he or she is needs to do, should better be done quickly, because you don't know tomorrow and anything can come up at anytime. In view of the above, we see that many drivers do drive hurriedly and as a result over speeding to the place they go. There is danger in over speeding on the road. It causes accidents quickly and it affects lives quickly when it happens. Over speeding is very dangerous. Avoid it. The earlier, the better.

Accidents are also caused by drinking alcohol. A driver  takes alcohol before going on a journey. Sometimes, they drink and forget that they are going on a journey, when they climb their vehicles, they could not understand their right from left. Getting drunk before driving is another dangerous thing that could cause an accident on the road. We need to be careful not to take alcoholic drinks or get ourselves drunk when we are traveling. For instance, a driver who was going to a party, alighted at a bar to a  shot of drink. The driver forgot that he was on a journey, he took more of the drinks which he never wanted to take. When the vehicle, he managed to move quickly to drop his car because his eye were turning, before one knew it, an accident had happened and his vehicle had already scatted into pieces. We need to be cautious at all times to avoid a horrible accident scene. 

According to residents, efforts were made to transfer the petrol from the fallen tanker into another tanker, but the operation was unsuccessful.

While attempts were being made to manage the situation, some residents reportedly began scooping petrol from the fallen tanker. 

The fuel  was allegedly taken from the petrol tanker to a nearby market, where it was stored.

The situation later escalated when the area where the petrol had been scooped caught fire, resulting in a blaze that spread to the market and destroyed goods and other valuables belonging to traders, as a result of carelessness.

Speaking from the incident scene, Mrs Mercy Cheose, a trader whose gold and jewelery were reportedly destroyed in the fire, said she received a phone call from a friend informing her about the situation.

“My friend called me, and they didn't allow them to open the market. They were saying the fuel was too much. Immediately I got home, I was told that the place was on fire,” she said.

Another eyewitness, Mr Moses Attekai, attributed the incident to the pothole that allegedly caused the tanker to fall and the subsequent scooping of petrol by residents.

According to him, the situation worsened after people began collecting fuel from the fallen tanker, leading to the fire outbreak.

The incident has raised concerns about the dangers associated with scooping petrol from fallen tankers and the need for improved road conditions and stricter safety measures to prevent similar tragedies. We all need to refuse to be careless in order to avoid the loss of lives.

The government needs to create an intervention team that at any time this team is called anywhere for any accidental occurrence.

There is a need for caution in order to cub the challenges facing the Nigeria roads.

The government should make it compulsory for people to always check their vehicles for mentainance

The Government should also make it compulsory for all drivers on the Nigerian roads to have drivers licence and evidence of being trained as a driver in order to give a better caution against horrible accidents on the various numbers of roads in Nigeria.

 The government should train people to tackle this menace.