Do you catwalk while crossing the road? At traffic light junctions? Roundabouts? Manned and unmanned junctions? Are you among the freaks who get distracted by smartphones while crossing the road? Are you temperamental, egoistic? Do you belong to the league of the, Do you know who I am? Are you among the drivers who uphold the madness called, an eye for an eye?
Did you read my piece on the unfortunate death of a 60-year-old retiree killed a few days before her grand finale celebration? Did you also read my personal experience while walking, where I almost lost my precious life in the hands of a reckless driver despite my religious compliance with the safety rules for pedestrians while jogging?
As we gradually move into the thick of the Ember months when irresponsible driving habits heighten all in the name of hustling for the festivities, I urge you to know that there is a growing number of reckless and road-rage drivers on the prowl. Without boring you this week with further examples of people’s near-miss experiences, I wish to draw the curtain on this subject matter, which has claimed several lives.
I have chosen to keep the stories and focus on the real deal. Let me take you back to the studies on rage driving which reveal that drivers aged 19 and below are more than four times more likely to be involved in aggressive driving than older drivers. It goes further to say that road rage tends to occur more in summer months and towards the end of the week in developed climates.
It also says that angry drivers are prevalent during peak commute hours or school run hours. In our climate, this could be prevalent during December for the Christmas season, if there is no cash to visit loved ones, and in September, just before school’s demand for new and increased school fees, among others.
These driving behaviors include the form of tailgating, honking, cutting people off, or making rude gestures especially when they believe they may never see the person again. It is therefore crucial that we drive to avoid rage incidents by driving with courtesy, respect, and patience. These three driving virtues have the potential to douse even the worst incidents before they occur. To achieve this, you will need to review your driving lessons and tips by recalling your defensive driving techniques notes.
The notes require you to maintain a safe distance and avoid tailgating, use turn signals to avoid cutting off other drivers, use your horn responsibly and avoid blaring it unnecessarily, avoid flashing high beams at others, and be considerate, careful, and cautious in parking lots or even at malls.
According to experts, when this fails, avoid making eye contact with reckless and upset drivers, don’t escalate aggression with aggression, if you feel endangered, navigate to a public place such as a police station, fire station, or hospital, and don’t hesitate to call an emergency number, but please remain calm always.
I know that there are other cases across other parts of the country but what is clear is that a lot of people who claim to be drivers are really not one. A good number are learner drivers who, rather than allow the process of maturing as a driver, would rather cut short the process to show off like others.
But while I maintain that a measure of insanity has taken over our roads among both learners and some licensed drivers, I must also state here that there is a lot that is wrong with pedestrians and drivers irrespective of age or sex. For some drivers, it has to do with pride and ego, as a handful would rather conceal their learner status and drive without their instructor, as contained in the National Road Traffic Regulations. There is also the increasing traffic indiscipline which calls for stiffer penalties by traffic officers.
-But while I lament this increasing development, I must note that pedestrians all over the world, including developed climes and others, face a similar risk of being knocked down. Pedestrians’ death is a great concern amid mounting signs that pedestrians and drivers are dangerously distracted.
In the United States of America, smartphones and marijuana use are suspected key factors for the rise in pedestrian deaths. There are worries that “People outside cars are dying at levels we haven’t seen in 25 years, despite improvements in vehicle safety such as the recent introduction of automatic emergency braking systems, rear-view cameras, and collision-alert technology.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety identified poor headlights as a problem while poor design and failure to adopt lights that swivel with the curvature of the road are hurting, especially at night. Despite these identified challenges, experts agree that pedestrians are sometimes to blame, as well.
There is no doubt that a handful of drivers are distracted. There are also a handful of distracted pedestrians who are not even literate on how to use the road. Daily, both people behind the wheel and those walking in the street fail to take responsibility for their behaviour by learning to walk or drive without using the phone. Even okada and tricycle riders have joined the bandwagon. So, too, have the dispatch riders.
Let us go back to the data that identifies increased use of marijuana as another potential factor causing the increase in deaths in the US. A study in our case will certainly reveal increasing drug use by a handful of road users, including pedestrians. Only a study will unravel the number of traffic deaths that could be drug-related, similar to the development in America.
The report cited further reveals that the craze for big, gas-guzzling SUVs has not only affected the environment, but also led to more fatal road accidents, the study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety noted. The insurance research study equally noted that pedestrian fatalities were also increasingly likely to involve powerful cars, which, it says, suggests speeding was a factor.
The increased fatal road traffic crashes occurred mostly in urban and suburban areas where SUVs are mostly driven and during dark hours on busy roads, like arterials, without proper pedestrian crossings. SUVs, pickups, and vans, we must note, have also become the craze in Nigeria and are linked to a higher risk of death or severe injury to pedestrians.
The study notes that these vehicles have higher and often more vertical front ends than cars and are more likely to strike a pedestrian in the head or chest, thus making crashes involving pedestrians both deadlier and more frequent in places where they predominate. This is why experts opine that improvements in road design, vehicle design, lighting, and speed limit enforcement are crucial road safety interventions.
For reminders, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects road fatalities in Sub-Saharan Africa to increase by 112%, from approximately 243,000 in 2015 to 514,000 in 2030. The report also reveals that road fatalities per capita are projected to increase by 51% over the period 2015-2030. To tilt this trend, a system-based intervention that gives priority to institutional management and capacity issues is recommended by the WHO.
