The spate of auto-crashes on the country's roads is worrisome. Lives are lost on a daily basis, as a result of bad roads or negligence on the part of road users.On Monday, auto-crashes claimed no fewer than 20 lives along the Nyanya-Mararaba road. The first accident, according to an eyewitness, happened early in the afternoon, when an articulated lorry carrying iron rods and heading to Nyanya from the Abuja axis, had a brake failure and swerved onto the other lane.
The articulated lorry was said to have rammed into three vehicles, including commercial buses and crushed many occupants in the process.
About an hour later, another trailer conveying a bulldozer to an unknown destination lost control at Kugbo Furniture Centre on the same road and was said to have left an undisclosed number of persons dead.
The second articulated lorry was believed to be “on the service” of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Department of Development Control but the public relations officer of the department, Josie Mudashiru, denied that the department’s bulldozer was involved in an accident, when contacted for confirmation.
Lorry drivers still defy the directive by the FCT administration for them not to ply Abuja roads during the day. The defiance has continued despite the task force set up to arrest defaulters.
The Minister of the FCT, Bala Mohammed, had, 11 days ago, given a directive for alternative routes to be opened up for motorists from Abuja to neighbouring states on the opposite carriageway from Nyanya to the Nnamdi Azikwe Expressway. This was done to address the traffic bottlenecks usually experienced on the road during peak hours of the morning and the evening.
Tribune
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