Remember. Support. Act

Did you know Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem? She is the President of the Court of Appeal. But did you know about KRSD? Did you know it stands for Kwapda Road Safety Demand? Did you know she lost her son, Kwapda Rangna’an Samson Dongban in a road traffic crash? Did you know her son might have survived the crash if help had come? Instead of surrendering to sorrow and anguish, she created KRSD?

Have you heard of Rochelle Sobel.? Like our revered Justice, her son was killed in a bus crash in Turkey. To save other mothers the same trauma, she founded the Association for Safe Travel International Road Travel (ASIRT) to promote safer travel. ASIRT works with various NGO’s, corporations, and the United Nations to improve road safety standards worldwide.

Have you even heard of Brigitte Chaudhry? Another mother whose life was shattered by the death of her son, Mansoor-killed by a red-light driver. This should ring a bell in the ears of all the red-light defaulters in the Federal Capital Territory and other cities, who make a mince of such infractions.

Did you know that she founded RoadPeace and created a Remembrance Day for road crash victims? Did you know that what began as a personal act in honor of her son and other victims in 1993, spurred the United Nations in 2005 to unanimously adopt what she started, recognizing it as the World’s Remembrance Day for victims of road traffic crashes and their families

For the record, this piece is not a biography on our dear sister, wife, mother, grandmother, Justice, and Special Marshal for those who may not know. I last met her in 2024 during a summit by Special Marshals. Her simplicity and humility were, to say the least, embarrassing and humiliating. Rather than allow me to pay her all the compliments she deserves, she made me feel like I was anything.

Rather, this piece is a highlight of her commitment to save lives through collaboration. As a further demonstration of this commitment, our revered Justice Monica, in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps, convened the world to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. The gathering was for the International Road Crash Victims Africa Conference, which was held between 17th and 18th November, with the theme, Gathering Africa and the World for Road Crash Victims.

This conference was unique and added a fillip to the 2025 World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Crash Victims held yearly on the third Sunday of November. This year’s event was incidentally held on Sunday, 16th November 2025. Since it started, it has been endorsed by many governments, including international groups such as the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR), International Road Victims Partnership (IRVP), as well as the Global Alliance of NGO for Road Safety.

It calls on all to remember those who died, support those who survived, and act to save lives with the charge: Remember. Support. Act. In the words of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, let’s save lives and prevent injuries. Together, we can turn remembrance into action-and help to ensure that every journey ends safely.

Did you know that nine out of the ten -road crashes occur in low-and middle-income countries. Did you know that a full third of victims are children and young people, making road crashes the leading cause of death in this age group? Did you know that globally, 3,200 deaths occur each day through road traffic crashes? Did you know that this amounts to 1.19million deaths worldwide?

These deaths I once wrote about are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29, and the majority of deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, disproportionately affecting vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

As I wrote once, Road safety crisis is the leading cause of preventable death, the 3rd largest cause of disabilities. It is the 2nd largest cause of death after Aids/HIV in Africa. In the same Africa, there is generally poor costing data, making the cost of crashes difficult to estimate except for a few countries. A study has shown that 10percent of global road deaths occurred in Africa, though only 4percent of the world’s registered vehicles are on the continent.

This study posits that if reporting of road crashes were to improve, the road crash index in the Continent would be different, as it most likely would show more deaths. South Africa and Nigeria, according to this study, account for most of the reported deaths.

The causative factors behind these deaths, according to the study, are mostly human error, and vehicle factors that include the following: overspeeding, dangerous overtaking, alcohol and drug abuse, negligence of drivers, poor driving standards, and overloaded people or goods vehicles. Other causative factors include poor tyre maintenance, burst tyre, bad roads and hilly terrain, negligence of pedestrians, distraction of drivers by passengers, as well as cell phone use, among others.

For reminders again, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among children 15-19years and the second leading cause among 10-14-year-olds. These injuries I keep repeating, are not inevitable. They are preventable. Ironically, most parents and guardians are not concerned, going by their actions behind the wheel.

I doff my hat for the revered Justice and her collaborators, the Federal Road Safety Corps, under the leadership of Shehu Mohammed, the Corps Marshal, for this noble drive, which I hope will be replicated across board and sustained to reach every one of our publics, especially the government at all levels.
Meanwhile, solutions to curbing these deaths lie, in the words of the UN Secretary General, in improving infrastructure, legislation, and awareness, which is the essence of this conference, as well as enforcing laws and sharing best practices.

As we remember the dead, support their families, and act, I urge us all to demonstrate our actions by giving a bite to the Child Rights Act (CRA) of 2003, designed to protect children’s rights in Nigeria, which aligns with the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child. These Acts state that children have a right to a safe environment, and to protection from injury and violence.

The Act and others stress the responsibilities of society to protect children (from birth up to the age of 18years). Similarly, the 2000 United Nations Millennium Development Goals resolution sets as its fourth goal the need to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rates of children under the age of 5years.

In the same vein, the United Nations General Assembly,2002, ‘’A World Fit for Children’’ document, set out several health goals for children. One of such goals, which is specific to injuries, calls on all Member States to “reduce child injuries due to accidents or other causes through the development and implementation of appropriate measures.” Annually, the WHO and UNICEF have called for a greatly expanded global effort to prevent child injury.

In addition, the WHO/UNICEF World report on Child injury prevention, reminds us yearly that every day around the world, hundreds of families are torn apart by the loss of a child to an unintentional injury or so-called “accidents” that could have been prevented, lamenting that children’s injuries have been neglected for many years.

The report further stated that children’s maturity and their interests and needs differ from those of adults. It warned that simply reproducing injury prevention strategies that are relevant to adults does not adequately protect children. The report singled out child seats and cycling helmets as proven interventions. The above is proof that our God given and precious children rank high in the vulnerable user graph.