PHOTO: Commercial motorcyclist riding dangerously–Improper carrying, the order of the day
A GLIMPSE OF THE LIBERIAN REALITY: By Frank Sainworla, Jr., fsainworla@yahoo.com
Countless number of road accidents occur daily on Liberia’s streets and highways, primarily due to either overloading, excessive speed, defective vehicle or motorcycles/tricycles, many of which result into fatalities.
Here is an eyewitness account depicted by the graphic picture above.
This commercial motorbike seen in this photo is just one of many bikes, tricycles and vehicles that ply our roads daily, flouting all the traffic safety regulations on the books. As other bike riders and vehicle operators like him, they flow through police and security checkpoints daily.
This photo was captured on the afternoon of Thursday, July 22, 2021 plying the now paved Johnsonville route toward Bardnersville road. The rider not only not wearing a safety helmet (something that has been a norm in Liberia for many years); but is violating the traffic rule by engaging in “improper carrying”. This scene is replicated on our roads in and outside the capital, Monrovia and across the country.
The Liberia National Police (LNP) must do something urgently and in a proactive manner to arrest the practice of flagrant violations of road safety measures, not to wait until another tragedy occur growing out of one of the conditions spelled out in this piece earlier.
Intensive public safety education followed by robust enforcement of traffic safety rules and regulations remains urgent to prevent the further loss of lives and properties on Liberia’s roads.
Countless recommendations have been made by professionals in the road safety business for the national Police to bring back radio and other traffic safety programs and concretely encourage driving Education and Enforcement of Traffic Regulations would make Liberia’s Roads Safer.
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.
The LNP reported 592 motorcycle accidents in 2014, with 264 deaths throughout Liberia, with the numbers evening increasing every year.