Dangerous Expressway

One apt adjective which can be used to describe the Lagos-Badagry Expressway is dangerous. The rate at which fatal accidents occur on the road is quite alarming.

The ever busy expressway leads to the country’s border with Benin Republic, but this highway has become the harbinger of grief and tears. The fear of the unknown is visible on the faces of pedestrians, residents and motorists who daily use the highway.

Despite complaints by stakeholders, the problem persists. One of the complaints has to do with the activities of smugglers on the highway. Most of the accidents on the expressway are caused by desperate smugglers who drive recklessly with little or no regard for other road users.

A regular commuter on the road, Mrs. Chioma Nwabueze, said the vehicles driven by smugglers are usually in bad condition, lack side mirrors, and with tinted windows to prevent people from seeing what is being conveyed.

“If you see the way they load their vehicles, you will be shocked. They load them to the extent that the driver hardly gets enough space to sit and drive the vehicle,” she said.

Mrs. Nwabueze added that the smugglers are sometimes pursued by Customs or Police officers, which leads to accidents as they over-speed and become desperate and reckless.

“Some of them, while over-speeding, hit oncoming vehicles and sometimes pedestrians are caught in the confusion. In some cases, the smugglers are thrown off the vehicle into the bush, because they usually sit on their vehicles,” she said.

Aside the smugglers, Police and Customs men also cause accidents through their illegal activities. The road blocks and several check points sometimes become death traps for unsuspecting commuters and motorists.

A Lagosian, Mr. Aniebiet Chuks, said he could count about three or four instances when accidents had occurred at the road blocks. He cited Aradagun bus stop, where mobile policemen had set up a checkpoint and parked their armoured tank recently.

“There was an accident there a few weeks ago, because the tank was blocking a lane of the expressway. A car was coming from Badagry and another from Agbara, that wanted to make a u-turn, collided. Immediately the heartless policemen left the scene,” he said.

He also cited another accident that occurred in front of the Ijanikin Police Station where a car ran under a bus when policemen were trying to stop the bus.

“The bus was speeding and as they (the police) threw their spiked iron on the road. The bus stopped abruptly. As the driver of the car could not immediately control it, an accident happened. There have been many others like that,” he explained.

If the smugglers and police are blamed for accidents on the highway, government should also share in the blame because the road is full of potholes that have been ignored for years.

P.M.News City Update learnt that some sections of the road need to be patched up or totally resurfaced.

Mr. Anisere Temitayo agreed that some of the accidents were avoidable if the road is in better shape. Several vehicles have also been damaged.

He said Agbara bus stop and Ajemowo axis of the road that links Owode-Apa were the most dangerous.

“If you know this area very well, go to Agbara, Ajemowo and Owode-Apa roads to see for yourself. Those places are bad and vehicles spend so much time navigating around the potholes.”

Anisere explained that apart from the obstructions, the road has damaged many vehicles, especially those plying it for the first time.

“If you are driving on the road for the first time and have not mastered the potholes, if you are not careful, your vehicle will become so damaged that you may have to take the vehicle off the road.”

Robbers too are part of the cause of accidents on the road. Robbery occurs daily affair on the expressway. It is so bad that road users even get ready and keep ’something’ for the robbers if they approach at a particular time of the day.

A woman who pleaded anonymity said the armed bandits operate on the road at any time of the day, and in an attempt to escape them, vehicles run into one another.

“It has become so regular that we have to find some way to cope. They take over the road at any time and sometimes, they block the road. If one is not careful, one can run into whatever objects they have used to block the road and this can cause an accident.”

Attempts by P.M.News City Update to ascertain the statistics of deaths from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) proved abortive. But everyone knows that there is a needless waste of lives on the Lagos-Badagry expressway.