Road Safety: Between Ejidike, seat belt and Korope driver - ITREALMS

Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

REMMY NWEKE reminds Nigerian motorists and commuters that the ‘Mber months' are here again, stressing the importance of using seat belt for our safety.

 “… The use of the belt is not for the driver or Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), but for his own safety.”

Preface:
After waiting for over half an hour, penultimate Friday, the driver of the mini-bus known as Korope, entered behind the steering, with hope of taking the passengers from the National Stadium Gate at Surulere to Oshodi both in Lagos State.


Given his early bird boarding, Ejidike took the first passenger only seat in front and waited for others or the bus to be loaded.


As soon as the bus was filled, the driver switched on the engine, only then Ejidike reached out for the seat-belt. Initially, his efforts to reach the seat-belt was met by resisting comments from the driver, who actually advised that Ejidike literally forget about the seat belt.


In his usual self, Ejidike ignored him, knowing fully what he wanted by way of safety and at over 50 years, which half has been spent in Lagos, he went ahead to put on the seat-belt while the driver continued to rant; reaching out for his brand of sachet gin drink from one of his ankra dress pockets.

Nobody uses that belt here:
One message stood out, that after the fuming, he declare that ‘no body uses that belt in his bus, which Ejidike retorted that the use of the belt is not for the driver or Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), but for his own safety.


This brings to mind, that a few weeks ago, Ejidike was on transit to Enugu State and obviously encountered same character in a driver that took him from Oji River to Four Corner. To cut the long story short, the driver, supposed elderly who should knew the need for seat belt advised him to leave that when he attempted putting it on, after all, no one in form of FRSC also known as road safety, will disturb them on the route.


Whose duty to use seat belt in commercial vehicle?
Telecoms Clinic then went to social media and Facebook to be precise asking “Whose duty is it to use seat belt in commercial vehicle; Driver or passenger?” Most respondents agreed that both the driver and passenger should use their seat belts always. Then a follow-up question was “what happens when you board a bus and driver commands you not to use the belt? Whereas Prince Abiodun Bayo was skeptic about a ‘trained’ driver dishing out such a command, posited that “most drivers will insist that you should use your belt. It will be strange for a driver to stop you from using the belt even when he doesn’t insist.”


And for a digital right advocate, @Nnenna Nwakanma, “The law in Côte d'Ivoire says that UNTIL both are belted, (especially in the front seats) the driver CANNOT turn on the ignition.” While @Tunde Omis described seat belt as a “utility not a possession in a car.”

And the Minister died:
Telecoms Clinic recalled after the death of a serving Federal Minister of State for Labour, Mr. James Ocholi, wife and son, who all reportedly died recently due to non-usage of seat belt at the back, that the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) had resolved to enforce speed limit device and rear seat belt usage.

The immediate past Corp Marshal, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi had warned that most Nigerians, especially those who are described as ‘car-owners’ and who usually seat at the rear should imbibe the habit of wearing their seat belts among rear passengers, stressing that if they do, and even have a company at the rear, definitely such a passenger should wear theirs as well.

Globally, about 50% of those killed in vehicular accidents died for non-usage of seat belt.

For instance, in 2022, estimated 25,420 passenger vehicle occupants killed, while seat belts saved an estimated 14,955 lives and which could have saved an additional 2,549 people if they had been wearing seat belts, in 2017 alone.

As stated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in 2022, Telecoms Clinic gathered that data showed seat belt use was at 91.6 per cent, and unrestrained occupant deaths accounted for 49.8 per cent.


Use your seat belt, save a life:
Experts at the United States-based NIH informed that passenger’s seat belt is crucial to surviving a crash, enjoining that they make it a habit to always buckle up every time. Pointing out that in 2022, half of passenger vehicle occupants who died in crashes were unrestrained, noting that from 1975 through 2017, seat belts have saved an estimated 374,276 lives, even as they advised “Wear your seat belt every time—no matter how uncomfortable it feels or how far you're going.”


Olumuyiwa Joshua Ogundele et al in a 2013 study available to Telecoms Clinic on “The impact of seat-belts in limiting the severity of injuries in patients presenting to a university hospital in the developing world” published by NIH revealed, that about 1.2 million people were killed each year in road crashes worldwide, with up to 50 million more injured. Over 95% of these deaths and injuries occur in the low- and middle-income countries of the world.


The study, Telecoms Clinic also gathered, evaluated the impact of the use of seat-belts in reducing the severity of injuries from road traffic crashes, determine compliance and awareness of the importance of the use of seat-belts among 140 Nigerian motorists; which outcome showed that a total of 81 (57%) patients used seat-belts, while 59 (42.1%) did not. Nineteen (13.6%) patients died as a result of their injuries; 4 (21.1%) of these had used seat-belts, while 15 (79%) had not (P = 0.001). The mortality rate of 79% for patients who did not use seat-belt was statistically significant.


Lack of information:
Telecoms Clinic equally gathered that there was no much information about how many vehicle accidents in Nigeria who were due to non-use of seat belts, but Naija Vibes reported existence of some related information about seat belt use in Nigeria, such as seat belt use in Makurdi, citing a study of 500 vehicles in Makurdi, Nigeria, where some 5% of vehicles had no seat belts at all. Noting that in overall analysis, seat belt compliance was 57%. Compliance was highest among car occupants and private vehicles, and lowest among commercial vehicle occupants.

For instance, efforts to get any update on seat belt usage from Road Safety spokesman and Corps Public Education, Assistant Corps Marshal, Jonas Agwu, proved abortive.


Submissions:
Though, according to study, Nigeria has one of the highest death rates across the African continent, with 33.7 per cent deaths per 100,000 population per year and considering that Nigerian motorists and commuters have some factors affecting their use of seat belt, which include socio-cultural, law enforcement, and availability of seat belts in vehicles especially on Tokunbos; imported used car, which have become often first own-driven cars by a huge middle class in Nigeria.

Whereas it has become crucial at last quarter of the year also known as ‘Mber months, namely October, November and December; in Nigeria for people to wear seat belts these festive season, which could reduce the risk of fatalities in road traffic accidents by 40-50% among front seat occupants and by 25-75% among rear seat car passengers, according to experts.


Hence, there is no doubt that seat-belt is an effective safety tool that not only saves lives, but also reduces significantly the severity of the injury associated with a vehicle occupant in the event of any accident, even as more public enlightenment cannot be over-emphasised to increase the awareness and compliance of use of seat-belts among Nigerian automobilist, moreso the drivers like the one encountered by Ejidike.

Group warns Adelabu, APC: You can’t take gov seat through back door - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

Oyo State-based socio-political group, the Oyo Kajola Group (OKG) has chided the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9 election, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu and his party for seeking to snatch the governorship seat through the backdoor, reports ITREALMS.

The group, in a press statement made avaialble to ITREALMS on Thursday by its Media Coordinator, Adebayo Ayandele, said that the statements credited to the APC and its candidate were targeted at provoking the good people of Oyo State.

“We cannot understand what Mr. Adelabu meant when he said he had a date with history in a statement he made after the ruling of the Court of Appeal on his election petition. We can also not understand the enthusiasm of the APC on the same matter.

“Rather than creating false hopes and hiding under the banners of lies and confusion to deceive their followers, we wish to urge the APC to face the reality of it all and accept that the 2019 governorship election in Oyo State has been won by Engineer Oluseyi Makinde.

“Let us warn very clearly that the election of the Governor of Oyo State was done within the purview of the law and not extra-legal factors.

“We, therefore, reject in its entirety, any form of ambivalence or ambiguity written into the judgement of the Court of Appeal on the Oyo State election matter and stick to the truth of it all: that Engineer Seyi Makinde remains the man voted for by the people of Oyo state and that his mandate will be in force till May 28, 2023.”

The group described the statement credited to Adelabu that some agents of darkness perfected the plan to steal his mandate,” which led to his “recourse to the judiciary to proof (sic) their wrongdoing,” as hogwash, and an insult to the good people of Oyo State who massively rejected him on March 9, 2019.

The statement also warned the APC not to keep the hopes of manipulative tendencies too high as according to it, no one can supplant Makinde through the back door.

The group urged Makinde to continue the good works he has started in Oyo State, which it said have made him a cynosure of all eyes and a worthy example for other governors.

It noted that “the APC’s plot to take a mandate given to Governor Makinde by Oyo State people through evil machinations will not succeed.”

“We read with amusement a statement credited to Adelabu that the pronouncement of the Election Appeal Tribunal has rekindled his and his party’s hope in their march to keep a date with history. They, indeed, will have their date with history at the Supreme Court and it will end in disappointment and shame, as we are sure that the court, as the last bastion of hope for the common man, will not allow itself to be used for the APC’s evil intention.

“In the said statement, like a similar one released by the APC a day after the judgment, Adelabu had robed himself in borrowed gowns, stating how some imaginary people knew he was the best candidate among the lots that sought the mandate of Oyo State people. He had equally prided his campaign as most organized and issue-driven.

“We in the Oyo Kajola Group would not have bothered with whatever borrowed gowns Adelabu chose to robe himself in, of course, no one can stop a butterfly determined to pride itself as a bird.

“Indeed, we would have considered his statement and that of his party as a bit of blarney, an amusing nonsense that should be laughed at and ignored but knowing the evil machinations of the APC and its tendencies to pervert the cause of justice and snatch popular mandates through the judiciary, we will like to place it on record that the APC did not and could not have won the 2019 governorship election in the state. The result of the election in which Makinde won in 28 out of 33 local governments, polling 515,621 votes to defeat the Adelabu, who polled 357,982 votes.

“The people of Oyo State reacted rightly by voting against the APC, a party that nearly ruined Oyo State in eight years; turned nearly every institution and processes upside down and tore into the core of the state’s nobility and prestige as a pace-setter state. The people voted against a reign of terror synonymous with the APC campaigns.

“It is, therefore, amusing that the same party is laying claim to victory and putting its hopes in the Supreme Court. We will like to call on well-meaning Nigerians and members of the international community to be watchful at a time like this so that some desperate individuals do not sabotage democracy using ill-gotten wealth to pervert the cause of justice.”

Ayo  Midele/Editor
*JOIN our alert's group | Share stories with us | Advert placement: WhatsApp | SMS: +2348033592762 *Twitter: @ITREALMS *Email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com*

Pix: Ayo Makinde, Gov. Oyo State