Train did not kill her, our road environment did

In what could easily pass for a scene from a Nollywood movie, Nigerians watched as a moving train viciously crushed a black car sitting in the middle of a level crossing in the Kubwa area of Abuja. Inside the vehicle was a woman, who was later revealed to be a staff of the NTA Channel 5, Abuja. She died on the spot. It is not every day that one sees accidents happen live. But last week – thanks to social media and its unsympathetic army of live-action vultures – it was available free of charge on our phones and even on some mainstream media.

Thereafter, many versions of the accident story surfaced. This is ironic, considering that we all just watched the video. There was a report that the woman was stuck in the level crossing because she was waiting for another vehicle in front to clear the rail line before she could pass. Another version said her car broke down, and that a man was trying to help her take it off the tracks. Yet another story was that her car could not move fast enough as the train zoomed into the crossing. Put these tales side by side with the video you just watched, and you are staring at a blatant mismatch.

Nevertheless, let us stick to the bare facts. A Nigerian woman was killed by a speeding train while driving through a level crossing that has no warning signs and safety infrastructure. Contrary to standard health, safety and environment protocol, the Chikakore, Kubwa, level crossing does not have warning lights, sirens and boom gates. Hence, the community in that area depends on the horn of the oncoming trains to know when to clear the rail lines.

If in doubt of this basic truth, let us listen to the words of a crucial witness, the Chairman, Chikakore Community Zone-E, Ismail Olakposoyosi. According to the Punch newspaper report, the community head said the victim was driving out of the community before she met her untimely death.

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Olakposoyosi said, “As she got to the train tracks, that was when she saw the train coming. Most times, the train will not even give adequate notice, it will not horn, sometimes when it horns, it will be when it is close to the community; that was how the incident happened. She was caught unawares at the rail tracks and the train dragged her vehicle with her inside some kilometres before it stopped.”

I am of the view that the country’s road environment killed the lady. We build roads, rails and other public infrastructure without considering ambient environmental impacts or adding basic safety structures. This is the same reason we are having building collapse right, left and centre. We are a nation with many experts with glowing certificates but little impact on the everyday life of the average citizen. All our government institutions have departments of health, safety and environment, with full-time civil servants receiving monthly salaries. Yet, they fail to serve the nation in this regard. Who would believe that in this modern time, rail lines would be laid through communities populated by thousands of citizens, with no thought for their safety and the safety of the environment?

As a matter of fact, our road environment belongs to the Stone Age. This is why many linear communities in rural areas (with ‘federal roads’ passing through them) resort to self-help. They construct speed bumps and the likes by themselves because the government never considered the road environment as part of the road construction project. As far as the government is concerned, you are privileged to have a road and it does not matter if it comes with unnecessary deaths. Obviously, it is in this spirit that those that built our Kaduna-Abuja rail line gave it to us. We are faced with two tragedies; a government that shirks its duty to the people it swore to serve; and a government that lacks creativity, compassion and candour. This government says to us,“now you have a rail and a train; the rest is up to you!”

Generally, features of a road environment include a footpath, driveway, zebra pedestrian crossing, pedestrian crossing with lights, children’s crossing, pedestrian refuge, traffic lights, railway crossing, laneway, fence, road, road sign, road marking, nature strip, kerb, verge, median strip, roundabout, street vegetation (trees, shrubs), street furniture (bus shelters, post boxes, benches), and tram stops. But then, our road environment must align with our burgeoning population, the vehicles at our disposal and the different classes of citizens that are on our roads. For instance, we have never considered bicycles as part of our transportation reality, while it is actually used by many Nigerians; the same with baby strollers, skateboarders (now in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos), wheelchairs and motorised scooters.

It is, therefore, not surprising that a government that waits for disasters to happen before planning for safety has once again left everything to chance after introducing train transport to its citizens.

Truly, the most painful aspect of the matter is that Nigerians have yet to come to grips with the fact that the government’s negligence killed that NTA staff. I read several comments that insinuated that the hapless lady might have driven to the level crossing with suicidal intent. Understandably, when one watches the video of the accident, such an assumption naturally appears as an option. But we should also remember that there are natural habits that could have pinned the woman to her car in that split second she had the opportunity to escape.

No, the rail lines do not have magnets. No, there is no voodoo involved. Yes, a human being could be shocked into hypnosis by an approaching force of death at that critical moment. There is also a natural split-second hesitation to leave a danger zone when one has something valuable to abandon.

This is why sometimes laws are made to save us from ourselves. If there was a barricade or a boom gate that goes down when a train approaches the crossing, no car would be stuck on the rail line. If there was a warning light and/or a siren that comes on to warn pedestrians and drivers alike, nobody would be left in doubt that the level crossing is a danger zone during those crucial moments. But as we are wont to do in this clime, we have left our work for God to do for us. Still, the sad truth is that there may actually be some other level crossing deaths that never came to the public view because they may have happened in rural areas, and to citizens without flashy cars – where there is no smart phone to record.

That brings us to a troubling reality. From the lens of rail line safety, it seems our nation is moving backward instead of forward. This is because decades ago, the safety culture and structures were better than what we have today. I remember those days when level crossing safety culture was imbibed by every city dweller, and the Federal Government had its manpower fully on the ground at every one of them. At every level crossing in the towns and cities of Nigeria, there were warning lights and boom gates, fully manned and operated by railway staff working from the attached level crossing booth/office. It is, therefore, highly reprehensible that while other nations are innovating for the future – at the international symposiums on level crossing – we are stuck in our own crude ways, killing the environment and our citizens.