<<Print>>

One unsettling thing that can happen to motorists on our streets and roads is when a giant billboard obstructs their visions as they drive. This is dangerous and it is amazing that it was only a few days ago that the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) expressed concern about the development and even taking action towards stemming the anomaly. Anyway, it is better late than never. Road safety, officially, has received the attention of successive governments in the country, the result of which is the creation of the NRSC. The Commission was set up to, by and large, ensure that our roads are safe and devoid of avoidable carnage. Have we however attained that state of safety? Not yet, and we cannot even attempt a conjecture as to when that would be under the prevailing circumstances in the country. We still have many stark illiterates driving commercial vehicles, a situation which has led to many avoidable accidents on our highways. We are a long way from making our roads safe, no wonder some persons, and there are quite a number of them, have resigned themselves to staying away from the steering wheels, preferring to be chauffeur-driven. Others too have vowed not to travel at night because accidents which take place under darkness are usually bloodier. The human error and frailty aspect of accidents aside, there are a number of other factors which also contribute towards mishaps on our highways. The NRSC and other stakeholders, as contained elsewhere in this edition, recently held a meeting and brooded over the issue of indiscriminate location of billboards. Without any shred of doubt, it appears that relevant authorities can also be blamed for some of the challenges on our roads. We are referring to those who permit the location of billboards at places where they obstruct the visions of motorists. In some cases, even ornamental plants are made to grow around U-turns on medians of major streets in the cities. When motorists seek to negotiate such turnings, they encounter the challenge of stretching their necks like giraffes to ensure that such manouvres are safe. Motorists are left with no option but to just take a risk and drive on under such circumstances. One does not need to be an expert in such matters to determine the danger posed by such giant-sized billboards. It beats our imagination to think that such obstructions are located with the permission of relevant authorities. It is in the light of the foregone that we associate ourselves with the NRSC to ensure that such obstructions are cleared from the places they occupy. We would not be asking too much if we demand that such obstructions be forcefully removed so that some degree of sanity can be achieved on such roads. For now, our roads are just too dangerous, a feature which is more glaring to people who are coming into the country for the first time after many years in relatively better organized communities.