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How many lives should be lost before authorities enforce seat belts rule?
2007-09-01 08:36:52
By Emmanuel Kihaule
I was traveling to Kampala from Dar es Salaam by road recently when I witnessed an accident which reminded me and the rest of the passengers about the importance of seat belts.
It was sunset as we approached Namanga border town when the accident happened, out of sheer reckless driving.
It all began after a 15-seater Nissan Caravan minibus with registration numbers T 729 AAU destined for Namanga overtook our bus at flying speed.
We had then close to Longido police check point, about a two-hour drive from Arusha town.
No sooner had the minibus disappeared from our sight than we saw a thick cloud of red dust in front of us that made it difficult for us to see far.
At first we thought it was a Maasai herder taking livestock back home after grazing.
The big number of cattle, sheep and goats which these people keep often raise a thick dust when they walk through a gravel road on their way to the grazing fields or when they go back home.
Our driver slowed down and eventually stopped as we struggled to find out what had happened.
As the dust settled, none of us could believe what we saw.
It was a ghastly accident which involved the speeding mini bus.
The minibus that had just passed us less than five minutes earlier had overturned several times throwing out all its passengers in due course before it rested on its side.
Passengers from our bus immediately jumped out, some through windows in an effort to help the victims of the accident.
After all we were the first people to get there and it was only fair that we should give them all the assistance we could offer.
My curiosity as a journalist pushed me out of the bus fast and I was the first to reach the victims.
Yet what was I saw and heard shocked me so much that I just stood there dump founded.
Other passengers could not bear the sight and simply turned away, weeping in anguish.
It was indeed a horrible sight. Bodies covered in blood lay on the ground helpless.
Those who did not fall unconscious screamed for help at the top of their voices for help while writhing in pain.
A few others were still clinging to what had remained of the fateful minibus because they could not move out as some of their broken limbs were stuck in the broken parts of metal.
The bus which was plain white had lost its colour as big patches of red fresh blood covered most of its body.
Broken glass was scattered all over the area while pieces of luggage which included bags, sacks of grain and jerry cans had been thrown in all directions.
I noticed three dead bodies, one of them a female who had a deep cut on the forehead. Something had gorged out one of her eyes and there she lay motionless in a pool of blood.
At another corner another woman lay dead. She had a big gash on her head as if something heavy had crashed on her. The head was almost flat.
Fresh blood with whitish substances, probably smashed brain, were oozing-out like water from a weak spring.
A man’s body lay prostrate. He had no signs of major and he remained motionless throughout the rescue operation.
Among the casualties were two babies wailed in agony for help.
Several adults who thought they were not seriously injured mustered some strength and tried to walk but they ended up falling down and the hard surface of the tarmac road only compounded their pains.
One of them was covered with a thick layer of blood on his head.
Another casualty, a young man in his late twenties, was holding his arm that had sustained three severe fractures.
One could tell it from the pieces of bones jutting out through the skin.
We advised them to lie down as we waited for help. We tried to call the police through the emergency numbers but could not reach them.
So we just sat there looking at the dead bodies and listening to cries of agony from the casualties, unable to help them.
However, after a few minutes a man on a motorbike, who seemed to be from the neighbourhood, appeared and soon volunteered to go to call the police from the Longido Check point.
As we were waiting, I struck a conversation with one of the few passengers who had escaped unscathed from the accident.
The Maasai had sustained superficial scratches and he just stood there, staring at what had happened in disbelief.
He asked me to fix his Siemens mobile phone so that he could inform relatives about the tragedy.
It was hard to get him talking but after some persuasion he decided to answer a few questions. He refused to mention his name, never the less.
He explained that the bus had about twenty passengers and a rear tyre burst had caused the accident, more so because the driver was speeding.
`The driver was caught unawares and he failed to control the wheel. The bus swerved from one side of the road to another before overturning several times.
Almost all passengers, including myself, were violently thrown out,` he said, showing little interest to continue with the conversation.
After about twenty minutes the police arrived in a Peugeot pick-up.
They included several plain cloth officers and a traffic police officer.
We helped the casualties into the pick up. Moments later a Nissan Caravan minibus arrived and also helped to ferry the accident victims to a hospital at Longido.
All the casualties had at last been removed. Only dead bodies remained at the scene of the accident.
I then drew the police officers into a conversation and asked him why they don`t enforce the seatbelt rule in this country.
Why no policeman really cares if a passenger has buckled up or not.
This is because I firmly believed that had the passengers in the minibus fastened seat belts the magnitude of the damage to property and loss of lives would have been less serious.
A police woman who seemed to be the senior in the group as she was referred to as afande by the others, replied curtly: `This is not an issue at the moment.`
And that was the end of the conversation. Further attempts to make them to talk proved futile until we proceeded with the journey.
As we left the scene passengers discussed the accident at length.
Some of them wondered why road safety measures such as fastening seat belts were taken for granted unlike in Kenya where failure to observe the rule could land one in prison.
Since 2004 Kenya has been enforcing the seatbelts rule, with the law enforcers meting out heavy sentence to those who don`t observe it.
The police are very strict and serious when it comes to enforcing the rule.
This is was not the first time for me to travel to Kenya by road and whenever you enter the country from either Uganda or Tanzania the conductor will hasten to remind passengers to buckle up.
It would appear that only Kibaki`s government understands the importance of fastening seat belts as a safety measure to passengers.
It is important to note that Tanzania also has similar traffic rules that require the fastening of seat belts for both passengers and drivers. The rule applies equally for private and public vehicles.
However, authorities in this country seem not to care about such regulations as a result of which lives which would otherwise have been saved, are lost.
The Longido accident is just one of such examples.
Several studies have proved that seat belts, if used properly, could greatly help to save lives.
A study conducted in USA last year, for example, found that about 63 percent of people killed in car accidents did not wear seat belts.
According to the study, failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related behaviour and that wearing a seat belt wis still the single most effective measure for saving lives and reducing injuries on roadways.
If 90 percent of Americans would buckle up, more than 5,500 deaths and 132,000 injuries would be prevented annually, it discloses.
The study which was carried out by the country`s Public Information Office, Division of Motor Vehicles, thus suggests that it is necessary to have stronger seat belt laws and high enforcement campaigns to get people buckle up.
Although there are views that seat belts cannot help in case of fatal accidents, research has proved that the devices can, to a great extent, help in reducing fatalities in many ways, the severity of the accident notwithstanding.
The important thing about seatbelts is that passengers are not thrown out when the car is involved in an accident and this helps the driver to try to save the lives on board without distraction.
Many people lose lives as they try to jump out of such motor vehicles only to be crushed by the motor vehicles or hit hard surfaces such as the tarmac road.
Other passengers who are thrown about by the accident impact inside the vehicles fall on their fellow passengers and hence injure or even kill them.
There is no convincing explanation why authorities in Tanzania do not take seriously and so enforce seatbelt wearing despite all these advantages.
Overloading of buses is a common phenomenon in the country and it is obvious that in such a scenario seat belts are of no use as passengers share seats contrary to the manufacturer’s specifications.
If the Longido minibus had twenty passengers as one of the survived had said, it means that over six passengers were in excess and hence there was nothing like fastening of safety belts among them, if the rule was at all enforced.
Sometime last year, an overcrowded 29-seater Toyota DCM minibus plunged into a river in Arusha and killed on spot 54 people and injuring about 30 others.
No one knows how the bus managed to escape the eyes of the law enforcers on the highway which has a 24-hour police patrol
Arithmetically, with such a big number a single seat belt was supposed to be used by at least three passengers!
At this rate who will survive? How many more people should die so as to draw the attention of the responsible authorities?
Seat belts are not a luxury and could help to save many of people who have the right of arriving to their destinations alive.
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