Hurray! It is almost a new year, with just two days to go. And for our new year resolution, we should promise ourselves a proper road traffic comportment so that during the new year, we will not witness road crash, road injury and road death. As a matter of fact, most people don't think 'road safety' until perhaps a disaster or a crash occurs.The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka, while reacting to the slight hitches in traffic flow during the yuletides along the Abuja/Lokoja, Lagos/Ibadan/Ore, Asaba/Onitsha, Obollo/Affor/9th Mile, as well as the Enugu/Okigwe/ Port Harcourt highways said among road users remain a challenge and therefore advised motorists to be patient on the road and have regard for other road users. Not less than 600 traffic offenders were arrested and arraigned before mobile courts established at strategic patrol locations for contravening traffic rules and regulations across the country during the Christmas and new year special patrols. About 78 people were reportedly killed during the period.As we are entering the new year, there is the greater need for a collective and collaborative efforts to ensure a desired road comportment for the new year while all and sundry should key in to the operation zero tolerance aimed at actualizing the United Nations Decade of Action on road safety which seeks best practices on road safety in all the countries of the world.As a result of the high degree of motorisation, road traffic crashes worldwide have reached an endemic proportion. Aside from the high motorisation, another key factor is lack of safety culture among our people. Some don't care or don't know. Rather than take personal responsibility for their safety, they place trust in fetish objects and externalise their locust of safety.As individuals, we all have a role to play. As a commuter in a commercial vehicle, when you notice the driver is overspeeding, you caution him. Don't allow yourself to be packed like sardine in an over loaded vehicle. You need to police the vehicle yourself.It should be realised that the daily life of every person depends on the road, either to go to work, to school, to do business, and as such, a large percentage of victims of road traffic crashes are the young and able-bodied men and women in their prime ages who would have contributed immensely to the socio-political and economic growth of the country.There is the need for continuous and an orchestrated high-profile national advocacy in order to raise awareness about road traffic crashes, road traffic deaths, injuries, their grave consequences and enormous social and economic cost to the society, as well as the reality that such crashes, deaths and injuries can be prevented.With the glaring reality of the grave situations we are faced with, the menace of road traffic crashes is fast becoming an epidemic of some sort, hence, there is the need for us to tackle, headlong, this epidemic of road deaths because at every moment, someone, somewhere, is about to be injured, maimed, or out rightly killed in one road crash or the other.Road traffic crash is a disincentive to national development. If attention is paid to issues that border on road safety, rates of road traffic crashes and accidents will drop and this will ultimately enhance productivity as more able-bodied men and women will be able to contribute more meaningfully to national growth and development. It is a fact that when it comes to the distribution of finances, road safety has not fared well, hence the various calls by stakeholders for a change of attitude to the challenges posed by contentious issues of safety on our roads. It must be realized that the productive manpower of the country is already wasting away through deaths and disabilities as a result of road traffic crashes and accidents.On a general note, it is estimated that road traffic crashes cost African countries huge sums which are reckoned to be equivalent to almost double the overseas development assistance received by the continent every year. In Africa, the giant of the continent, Nigeria, is reputed to have the highest number of road carnage due to bad roads, bad driving culture and above all, lack of political will at all development levels regarding road safety.Road safety must be seen as one of the indices for measurement of national development. Presently, funds that ought to have been used to provide good schools, electricity, potable water, and other economically beneficial facilities are being expended on medical bills for the treatment of victims of road traffic crashes. Have you ever noticed several scenarios where school children standing by the side of the road become scared to cross the roads and in some extreme cases are facing grave risks in crossing the road. The driver is not ready to give the little children their own right of way, while the motorcycle riders care less or little about the plight of the young school children While efforts are being made to put in place safe road infrastructure, there must be enough funds for the Federal Road Safety Corps, to carry out its statutory functions, while we should all resolve for a proper and desired road comportment in 2012.
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