OTEDOLA BRIDGE: What’s witches got to do with it?

AUTHOR: Taiwo Obe

Article originally published on LinkedIn.

Commissioned in 1978, the Otedola Bridge – so-called because of a neigbhouring housing estate named after Michael Otedola, a former governor of Lagos State, Nigeria’s former capital and commercial heartland – is along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the country’s first and busiest dual carriageway connecting Lagos to the rest of Nigeria.

According to Nigeria’s federal road safety officials, this bridge is the “most popular accident spot” in Lagos. Ouch.

To some Lagos citizens, the bridge is a domain of “blood-sucking demons” or witches and wizards.

Show me the proof

Count this former Number One citizen of Lagos State – Babatunde Raji Fashola – out of this lot. As he told graduating students of his alma mater (University of Benin, UNIBEN, Edo State, Nigeria), in 2016, his worldview, which his former philosophy teacher at UNIBEN helped to nurture, is to subject ideas and concepts which are not demonstrable by evidence to interrogation – to question and challenge things – and that everything is ultimately traceable to matter – something that can be seen. “We have not (only) surrendered our capacities and abilities in a frightful way to FEAR, we have (also) become victims of some confidence tricksters who deceive, disentitle and prey on our fears and frailties in ‘gods’ name.” And: “Superstitions have taken over (Nigerians’) reason and logic.”

Fashola, a senior lawyer and Nigeria’s minister of works and housing, overseeing the renewal and expansion of the country’s infrastructure, turned 58 on 28 June, and a gabfest in his honour (the fifth of such) examined how to curb human factors in road traffic crashes in Nigeria. Theme: “Arrive Alive: Building a road towards a better driving culture.”

That was where the Otedola Bridge came into focus.

“From January 2011 to August 2020, there were 130 crashes on this bridge.

Sixteen of these were fatal, 69 classified as ‘serious” and 45 ‘minor’.

Out of the 331 casualties, 38 died while 293 received minor injuries.

In 2016 alone, 12 fatalities and 21 crashes occurred on this bridge.”

In that 2016 speech at UNIBEN, Fashola had said: “We must use engineering to manage and control flooding and erosion.” Add road traffic crashes.

For the frequent crashes on Otedola Bridge, Omotayo O Awosanya, an engineer and director of Highways Design (Roads) at Fashola’s ministry, knowing that the minister would dismiss any talk of witches as baloney, got his team and other stakeholders, including road safety officials, together to find engineering solutions to them.

No, I do not subscribe to the witches’ rationale but I had always wondered whether the crashes could be because of the bridge’s steep gradient. Look out for something on this later.

Awosanya states that: “The bridge is at a valley with a downward slope of 3.62% into the bridge and outward slope of 4.3%,” and adds that “(this) is not far (emphasis, mine) from the minimum slope standard of the ministry.” Did you ask: What is the minimum slope standard of the ministry?

Out of the 308 vehicles involved in the crashes during the review period (January 2011-August 2020), cars, not trucks, represented the highest number – 117 or 38%. The number of trucks, 61 (38.9%) and minibuses, 71 (23.1%).

What the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) found out was that, during this period, Speed Violation (SPV) was the highest cause of the crashes (36.20%), Brake Failure, at 22.30%, the second and Mechanical Deficient Vehicle (14.60%), the third. Next up was Tyre Burst at 6.9%, followed by Loss of Control at 4.60% and Dangerous Driving and Sign Light Violation at 3.80% each. Fatigue and Overloading share 1.50%. Other causes such as Poor Weather, Use of Phone While Driving and Dangerous Overtaking recorded zero.

Bad Road: zilch.

Indeed, as stated by Hakeem Bello, one of Fashola’s aides, in a 58th birthday tribute to him, “from verifiable data by traffic management authorities, it is becoming clear that with better road infrastructure, motorists now overspeed and are becoming generally less compliant with road safety rules and regulations.” Fashola, quoting FRSC statistics in his presentation at the gabfest, states that “the rate of road traffic crashes (on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway (in picture) which is undergoing rehabilitation and reconstruction) has increased as the condition of the road is improving mainly due to over speeding”(emphasis, mine).

Back to Otedola Bridge.

On the day Fashola turned 55 (28 June 2018), a tanker carrying petrol exploded on that bridge resulting in the death of 12 persons, including the driver and his two assistants.

“Weather was clear and bright.

The tanker was moving outward Lagos and suddenly started rolling back. The two conductors of the tanker tried to apply the wedge to prevent the truck from rolling backward but the slope (negative slope) of the bridge coupled with the size of the wedges could not stop the tanker from rolling back.

The driver, instead of tilting towards the shoulder while telling his conductors to control traffic, tilted towards the concrete divider resulting in the carrier climbing the divider thereby turning the carrier over, and leaving the tanker head jack-knifed. In the process, the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) started dripping through the manhole, spilling into the road surface and on contact with the exhaust of the tanker head resulted in the ignition of a massive inferno spanning up to 100m high and side wage (to the right of the road). Many vehicles behind the tanker (Ibadan-bound) were entrapped in the explosion/inferno that occurred. It was a peak period (around 5:30pm) when people were travelling back and that increased the causalities/severity and damages recorded.

Cause(s) of the crash: Failure of the driver to maintain control of the vehicle when it was rolling back coupled with brake malfunction.”

– Omotayo O Awosanya

Based on that incident where haulage of petroleum was involved, FRSC officials are recommending, among others:

• the mandatory use of inflammable signs and retro-reflective tapes on trucks to enhance visibility; all trucks with flammable contents must comply with the Agreement for Dangerous Roads (ADR) Standards and fix necessary signs on trucks for recognition
• locally made tanks used for conveying petroleum products should meet material quality, tensile strength and other requirements to ensure quality assurance and safety
• need for the National Automotive Design and Development Council/Department of Petroleum Resources to inspect, regulate and certify locally-made tankers used for conveying petroleum products to ensure safety on Nigerian roads
• there should be restriction (on that corridor) of Articulated Vehicles (Tankers, Trailers and Trucks) from the traffic mix by time restriction or alternative route

That bridge’s steep gradient, yes, that: there are indications that, based on its findings, the ministry might, in the long term, consider the construction of a new bridge parallel to the Otedola Bridge with gentler gradient, and, in the immediate term, “delineate a trailer lane from other lanes to keep the trailers on the slow lane (outer lane) so as to reduce the possibility of crashes on other vehicles, as well as giving upcoming vehicles the opportunity to evade the trailer’s loss of control.”

Driver responsibility

Now, that we have established that humans (read: drivers) not blood-sucking demons (read: witches and wizards) are highly responsible for road traffic crashes, Fashola recommends the following, based on analyses of reports from his own officials and the FRSC’s, so road users can arrive alive at their various destinations.

1. Have a valid driver’s licence, based on your vehicle category. If not, go to the nearest FRSC office and follow the due process to properly obtain one, or if you already have, you can go for a recertification.
2. Periodically maintain your vehicle. Do you, as a rule, when going on a long road trip, carry out wheel balancing or wheel alignment of your vehicle? Because doing these help to reduce the risk of blow-outs and help your wheels run well
3. Assess your vehicle everyday to ensure it is in good condition. When you are travelling, do you gauge tyre pressure because the longer you drive, the hotter it becomes
4. Strictly adhere to highway regulations and safety guidelines. Do you even know the highway code? No? Interestingly, there is a mobile app for it here. Nothing stops you from relearning it

Safety officials need also to adhere strictly to the National Enforcement of Driving certification by periodically assessing drivers and enforcing road worthiness status of vehicles.
You may want to read this:
https://frsc.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Driver-training-and-testing.pdf

However, as Mr Ebun Sofunde, another senior lawyer and a founding partner of the law firm where Fashola started practising law, pointed out at the gabfest, only someone imbued with “proper values” would abide by rules and regulations; so it is important to ensure their inculcation in everyone, and, in this case, drivers. If people don’t believe that they must obey rules, “we won’t go far,” he stressed. Any objection?

(WATCH) A SHORT VIDEO…FOR THE ROAD

…AND SOME REFLECTIONS

In his presentation, Mr Fashola, quoting federal road safety statistics, noted that in January 2021, road traffic crashes (by the way, this is new nomenclature for road accidents) claimed more lives than malaria and Covid-19 combined. That is grim, isn’t it?

It is therefore imperative that everything must be done to stem the tide.

Strict enforcement of traffic laws is of vital importance.

From the FRSC data, among the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos State has the highest number of traffic offenders booked. This is understandable: what with a combination of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA), Vehicle Inspection Services (VIS) and Kick Against Indiscipline (KIA) at work. It is also commendable that the Lagos State Government is introducing technology to “promote operational efficiency, reduce personnel excesses and overzealous activities of officers while discharging their duties.” In March, the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu (centre, in picture) commissioned body-worn cameras for the use of the agencies’ operatives. According to this report, this should have been followed with a training of their usage.

With hope, this would be a prelude to a full adoption of smart technologies for an intelligent transportation system.

Let us end this with a question: where is the gentleman in this video from? For the offences and penalties, if booked by the FRSC, here you go.

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