Articulated Vehicles And Their Fearsome Disposition —Joe Igbokwe

The fear of articulated vehicles and oil tankers on Nigerian roads seems to have become the beginning of wisdom for both motorists and other road users. The impunity with which the drivers of this vehicles treat traffic and safety laws has become a cause for great concern.

Yesterday morning along Billingsway, near 7-Up, Oregun, Lagos, a truck driving against traffic wrecked a Nissan Primera car and a Toyota Sequoia SUV. And that is just one of the hundreds of avoidable accidents that involve flat-bed trucks and oil tankers.

Over the years, accidents involving oil tankers have claimed several lives, burning vehicles, houses and human beings and the law has been unable to check this carnage. Trailer drivers have often been known to be as reckless as the Lagos commuter bus driver, handling the heavy duty vehicles more or less like smaller cars. Recklessness apart, carelessness too has turned trucks into accidents waiting to happen because many of these vehicles are ill-maintained and develop faults and brake failures on a regularly. Many a time traffic jams caused by trucks have trapped people on the roads, resulting in the loss of man hours to the detriment of the economy.

These carbon monoxide-spewing monsters have also become kings of the road along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, creating traffic gridlocks and several attempts to dislodge them have often led to threats of embarking on strikes by drivers of the oil tankers.

For several months, the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway has become a no-go area because of these trucks. The highway had gone bad some years ago and contract for its repair had been awarded, but trucks parked along the highway have prevented work from going on full blast. The contractor handling the contract had on several occasions appealed to the Lagos State government to do something about these recalcitrant truck drivers. In Apapa and Tin Can Island, the trucks, the flat-bed types bearing containers and the oil tankers have taken over virtually all the roads in that axis of Lagos. Their disorderly conduct on these roads has become a growing concern among residents and workers. The effect of the carbon monoxide they poison the air with is better imagined. Business districts and residential areas, which are in no way close to the tank farms and container terminals have been taken over by trucks and the roads have become narrower, so much so that Lagosians, even those who have business there are afraid to venture there. For those that work in that axis of the state, it is a permanent nightmare.

We believe only decisive action by the Lagos State government can rein in this monster. Nobody must be allowed to flout the laws of the land with impunity. No one must be allowed to hold others to ransom with threats of strikes.

The government needs to take another look at the laws that guide the use of heavy trucks on our roads and enact appropriate legislation to curb the recklessness of the truck drivers. Flat-bed trucks carrying containers must be properly checked to ensure their cargo is properly fastened to the beds. Many times, unfastened containers have fallen from trucks and killed people.

The Lagos State House of Assembly needs to take a look at the problems created by these heavy duty vehicles, many of which are from outside Lagos, and make laws to check avoidable deaths in the hands of these reckless drivers.

The Asiwaju Bola Tinubu administration allocated land to the oil tankers around Orile-Iganmu, right in the heart of the city but the owners of the tankers refused to use the place, claiming it could not be used except Lagos State government provided infrastructure. Years later, the place lies fallow, with only a few of them using the place occasionally, and half-heartedly too. This culture of impunity must stop.