How Much Is Your Life Worth

This million-and-one-dollar question was asked by almost all those who responded to the posts. I am joining them to also ask the same question: What is the value of your life? How many millions of Naira are you worth? One? Two or three million, or maybe more? Or is it less, or maybe nothing?

I know that our Constitution guarantees the right to life, but how much is this life worth when taken from you by a reckless driver? An unlicensed driver, or maybe a drunk or distracted driver? Specifically, section 33 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) guarantees the right to life.

This guarantee in Section 33, located in Chapter IV, clearly states that every person has a right to life and that no one shall be intentionally deprived of their life, except in execution of a court sentence for a criminal offence. I am not sure if this puts a price on that life, especially when there is a violation of this provision of the Constitution.

Now back to the post. Chris Kehinde Nwandu, my brother from another mother, prompted these reactions online following his post. The post was not about the value of life. It was a post on the tragic end of a beautiful lady who was killed by a BRT bus, according to CKN on July 8, 2025. The lady, I read, had gotten a new job just four months earlier and was returning home from work around 7.30 pm.

Before the crash, the lady had called her husband to inform him. At about 7.45 pm, the husband tried to reach her again but couldn’t as her phone was unreachable. Shortly after, a caller told him to go to the Shyllon bus stop in Lagos State. When he arrived there, he saw the devastating sight of his wife’s lifeless body.

The road traffic crash occurred when, according to the post, the BRT bus veered out of its designated lane due to reckless driving, struck the lady where she was standing and ran over her. Strangely, the bus driver did not stop immediately; it was only after passengers shouted at him to stop that he did.

After stopping, the driver fled the scene of the crash. He did not offer any help to the victim, nor did he call the State’s toll-free emergency numbers, 767 or 112. The driver also did not dial the Federal Road Safety Corps ‘ 122 toll-free number.

He also did not attempt any first aid treatment if he had any first aid box in his bus, nor did he rush her to the nearest medical Centre to save her life. I am not sure the passengers whose shout prompted the driver to stop offered any help either. Perhaps some of them prioritised capturing the scene rather than saving her life.

The driver, according to the post, turned himself in at the police station the next day, but while the corpse of the lady was still at the morgue, the driver was later granted bail. Interestingly, the post said the BRT management offered the family one million five hundred Naira as a settlement

Before I return to the subject matter, let me refresh our minds on what the bus rapid transit system is all about. First, it is a high-capacity bus-based public transport system. It is designed to deliver fast, comfortable, and cost-effective urban mobility. BRT exclusively uses dedicated lanes, off-board collection and traffic priority.

According to the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, BRT has transformed how people move and experience their cities in Boston, Mexico, Jakarta, and Lagos, among others. According to the ITDP standards, a BRT system’s five essential features are: dedicated right-of-way, busway alignment, offboard fare collection, intersection treatments, and platform-level boarding.

BRT combines the efficiency and quality of metros with the flexibility and relatively low cost of buses, offering significant environmental benefits relative to private cars. It also achieves comparable speed, capacity, passenger comfort and convenience.

The exclusive dedicated lanes enjoyed by BRT promote safety, providing a buffer against recklessness and excessive speeding. I have checked the provisions of the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012, to confirm the exclusive privileges given to BRT systems with respect to excessive speeding and recklessness, without finding any, except if my copy is outdated.

For safety, the BRT system is highly regulated regarding speed and operations. Like most transit vehicles with more than eight passenger seats, BRT buses are required to have speed limiters to control maximum speeds. They operate under strict regulatory frameworks to ensure safety, often including specific, mandated speed regulations.

If this were the case, I am at a loss as to how a BRT bus driver could drive the way he did to knock a passenger who died as a result of the impact. I am also at a loss as to why he failed to offer help or call the emergency toll-free numbers available. Was it that he was mentally, emotionally unfit to drive at the time of the incident? Or was he scared?

What speed was he driving at the point of the incident? What provisions does the authority have in place for dealing with such cases? How many such cases have been recorded with BRT drivers? Was one million and five hundred Naira truly offered to the family of the deceased as compensation? Was that the provision made by insurance cover, or was it a ‘generous goodwill’ of the management to a bereaved family for the recklessness of a driver?

I learnt that in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, victims of reckless or dangerous driving receive compensation based on the severity of their injuries and the financial impact on their lives. This means there is no fixed, single fee.

What is paid to victims or their families is split into general damages for pain and suffering and special damages to cover financial losses. For instance, payment for brain damage ranges from £ 1,760 for minor cases to £ 493,000 for very severe injuries requiring full-time care.

For severe back injuries leading to paralysis, the pay can reach 196,450pounds while the statutory bereavement for certain close family members is 15,120pounds. The sources of these compensations are from insurance claims, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and court-ordered compensation.

There are, however, factors that could reduce what is ultimately paid to the victims or their families in the event of death.

The factors that could reduce payment include where contributory negligence caused or aided the crash, where the victim’s own action, such as not wearing a seatbelt, contributed to the severity of their injuries

The case in the United States follows similar logic but is heavily influenced by state-specific laws, insurance policy limits and the potential for punitive damages. Payouts in cases of reckless driving or willful disregard for safety can be slightly higher than in standard accidents.

If this is what obtains in developed climes, what was the paltry sum offered for? Have the investigations for the crash been concluded to determine the cause so as to determine culpability and avert similar crashes? Have the appropriate consequences been meted out to the driver, or would he be put on the road to continue driving without the appropriate punishment to deter others? Has he gone through the appropriate criminal sentencing, mandatory disqualification, and/or stringent relicensing requirements, if they exist? These questions beg answers not just for this tragedy but for all other road traffic crash tragedies.