Many residents of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital are expressing misgivings about the vehicular movement along the Yenagoa -Amassoma road due to the alarming records of road crashes and deaths recorded in the last 12 months.
Unlike every other roads connecting the state capital, Amassoma road located in Southern Ijaw Local Government Council seems to be bedeviled by ghastly road crashes and deaths, particularly of students of the state owned Niger Delta University (NDU).
The fact that Amassoma road connects the Bayelsa State International Airport, the state university, NDU and the country home of the first executive Governor of the state, Late D.S.P. Alameisegha makes it an attractive route, but residents of the state pray silently with their heart whenever their relatives and siblings travelled through the area.
Despite these alluring qualities, and the fact that the road is smooth, motorists are groaning over the fatal records of crashes.
The situation is further aggravated by the incessant cases of overspending, slippery nature of the road, recklessness of commercial drivers, truck accidents with attendant loss of lives and valuables.
Between January and May this year, over fourteen persons had lost their lives in different major accidents along the Amassoma route.
In April, Five persons have lost their lives when a black Toyota SUV vehicle with registration number RGM 38 HM and Mazda 323F car with registration number NEM 456 PG had head on collision.
In May, the Dean of Student Affairs at Niger Delta University, Amassoma, in Bayelsa, also died in a car crash. The deceased dean was found in his incinerated car after a lone accident on the Tombia-Amasoma Highway.
One of the Amassoma commercial drivers identified as Bright Obilor who spoke to Leadership at the park said that careless overtaking by the drivers is the major cause of accidents on the road, while calling on the state government and the park chairmen to go to all the parks and advised the drivers on the traffic rules.
“They don’t monitor the vehicle coming in front on the other lane before they enter to overtake. That is what causes the accidents mostly and it is we the drivers that are causing it. Sometime, when they see that the other vehicle behind them wants to overtake, that is when they will march the throttle so that the vehicle will not enter their front. By the time the other driver will increase his own speed too, there will be no space anymore for him to enter”, he narrated.
