“Road Safety Strengthens Economy”- says EU
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
The European Union is assisting Liberia to create more awareness on the need to make the country’s roads safer, as the EU reports that “annually, Liberia loses 3-5% of its GDP due to insufficient road safety and related traffic deaths and injuries.”
As part of this effort, the EU and the German agency, GIZ are collaborating with the country’s Ministry of Transport to hold a city activity dubbed: ‘Safe Streets Festival’ slated for November 25, 2017, a press release from the EU mission in Monrovia said here on Monday.
This latest move comes as safety on Liberia’s roads is reaching crisis proportions, with more and more untrained drivers get behind the steering wheels. They recklessly overtake in the curve, on hill and abruptly intrude into the opposite lane at high speed.
Some even don’t know what it means to yield the right of way, the role of the signal lights/reel view mirror and let alone traffic signs and markings on the roads.
This is the profile of a huge number of people in the driver’s seat on Liberia’s roads. They are supposed to be drivers. How they’ve secured national drivers/vehicle operators licenses is a whole different story.
Driving around Monrovia and other parts of the country, any trained driver (Driving school-trained operator like this Reporter) gets annoy daily by a sheer abuse of traffic rules by drivers, let alone motorcyclists locally called “Pem-Pem” riders and now the three-wheel “keh keh” riders.
This is why the Liberia National Police (LNP) authorities say reckless and unprofessional driving account for a large number of motor accidents in the country, many of which have led to the loss of many innocent lives. The 14 years of civil war, when the system collapsed, has made movements on the roads to move from bad to worse.
Liberia is number 66 in the world when it comes to the rate of fatal road traffic accidents, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) data published a few years ago.
The report says road traffic accidents in Liberia numbered 591 or 1.53% of total deaths. “The age affected death rate is 21.52 per 100,000 of the population,” the report adds.
Just last year, the LNP reported 592 motorcycle accidents in 2014, with 264 deaths throughout Liberia.
In March this year, a single road accident on the Buchanan-Cotton Tree highway caused the deaths of 20 people. And just recently, reckless driving is said to have led to the killing of Police officer Opaylo Gonbaye in a “hit and run” accident in Careysburg outside Monrovia. The list goes on….
Many trained drivers in the country believe that the high rate of road accidents here could be drastically reduced by streamlining the growing number of untrained drivers in on the streets.
They blame this on the lack of exposure by a vast number of them to drivers’ education coupled with excessive speed. They lack the knowledge that speed is not driving and that good, trained drivers, under the appropriate conditions.
A number of recommendations can be advance to make Liberian roads safer. Some of the recommendations made by those concerned about road safety. They include that the police re-introduce and make drivers education workshops mandatory across the country as well as engage in comprehensive road safety programs in the local media.
Besides, it is said that people wanting to drive a vehicle must be told to go and get trained at accredited driving schools around Liberia. The current practice of issuing drivers licenses to people by the Transport Ministry without being tested must come to an end, is another recommendation.
The motorcylists and those operating the tricycles are a class of its own. The operate motorized equipment but don’t see themselves as part of the motor traffic, something which is horrifying and also leading to the destruction of lives and properties. This is serious and must also stop.
Road conditions in the capital, Monrovia and around the country are also not helping to make our roads any safer and serve as death traps. Opened manholes in the middle of streets and other ditches are adding to the traffic hazards as well. In addition, the number of defective vehicles plying the streets go by with impunity.
Many of the scary traffic hazards can be a thing of the past, only if those responsible take the bull by the horn.
And one way to do this is for the police to step up enforcement of traffic safety measures by enforcing the vehicle and traffic laws of Liberia, which are on the books.
Meanwhile, another important benefits to ensuring safety on the streets and highways, according to the EU’s mission in Liberia is that “road safety strengthens economy.”
“The event is inspired by the European Mobility Week and takes place under the motto: “Road Safety Strengthens Economy”. The one-day event is aimed at promoting mobility and road safety in the transport sector of Liberia,” the press release said.
“The fun-packed programme will include a 5km run and family walk, a market space of Liberian goods, sports and cultural activities on Broad Street and will conclude with a live concert in the evening,” according to the EU press release.