-But will they muster the courage now to enforce traffic rules?
By our Reporter–
There is no letup in reckless driving and other gross traffic offenses on the streets and highways across Liberia, the Liberia National Police (LNP) has indicated.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, the LNP “expressed dismay over the wanton traffic violations by members of the driving public” and said the “attention of the LNP has been drawn to numerous traffic violations ranging from intrusions into VIPs Convoys, the usage of opposite lane without permission from the Liberia National Police, the violation of No Go zones by motorcyclists.”
Other traffic breaches cited by the national police include commercializing private vehicles, vehicle plying the streets and highways without registration plate and or insurance.
The Liberia National Police further expressed disappointment that some individuals in the driving public are in the constant habit of mounting sirens on their private vehicles and driving in an emergency manner.
Police authorities say any motorcycle caught plying the No Go zone will be arrested, ticket issued and impounded, if there is no license or other relevant documents to operate said vehicle.
In line with the vehicle and traffic law of Liberia, there are three emergency vehicles; the Police marked vehicle, Ambulance and fire service, the LNP release said.
Previous police administrations had acknowledged the existence of this traffic law, but they had not muster the courage to enforce it.
The wanton traffic violations have caused safety concerns on Liberia’s roads which have now reached crisis proportions, with more and more untrained drivers getting 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 writer) 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.
In 2016, the LNP reported 592 motorcycle accidents in 2014, with 264 deaths throughout Liberia.
In March last 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….
Meanwhile, the new LNP administration of Inspector General Patrick Sudue is calling on all road users to immediately desist from such practice.
Tuesday’s LNP release, signed by Police Spokesman DCP Moses Carter, Sr, warned that anyone caught in violation the traffic rules and regulations as of April 10, 2018 will be arrested, traffic ticket issued or vehicle impounded if necessary.