Samuel Matthew, on one Wednesday was on queue waiting to buy petrol from a petrol station along the road at about 12 noon; five hours later, he said, he opened his eyes in the hospital where he was later told that a tipper loaded with sand rammed into his car and that he only escaped by the whiskers.
While Matthew could live to tell the story, many could not.
Tipper Garage junction in Dutse-Baupma along the Dutse-Bwari express road calls for concern. At the junction, speed breakers mounted on the road have failed in stopping trucks while motorcyclists roam aimlessly throwing caution into the wind. Private vehicles are not left out with the road turned into a racecourse.
All these culminated in losses of lives that have been left unchecked and without a remedy.
Many motorists, pedestrians said they have ugly memory of the road.
The incessancy of the accident as said by Olusegun Samuel Adejumo, a resident, has an undertone, adding that most truck drivers hide under the guise of brake failure to harm residents.
“At times, a tipper’s brake will fail right from Usman Dam to this junction and I don’t know if it’s a deliberate act or not because how can vehicle’s brake fail twice a week?,” he queried.
“Within a month, we have recorded several accidents as a result of failed brake by tipper drivers,” Adewale Alabi, another resident, said.
Trucks, the major cause of the accidents, travel on a steep sloppy road from Bwari intersection usually on high speed with little cognizance for their brakes and wobbly vehicles.
“If the brakes fail, coming down from a steep road would make the vehicle faster with few speed breakers inadequate to stop the vehicle,” Matthew explains how the accidents usually occur, though, he said, it is not limited to trucks.
Omadye Akebu, a motorcyclist said the truck drivers have rendered many jobless and homeless. He said the accidents have forced many of the motorcyclists to return to their states with injury or their means of income snatched.
Ayuba Oyose, another motorcyclist, said in the three weeks that he has been at the junction; he has witnessed seven accidents, which he said left more than 20 injured.
Oyose said some motorcyclists when involved in the accidents would be unable to ride motorcycle for a living, forcing them to return to their states where he said they would engage in menial jobs.
Residents, motorists and motorcyclists all point to the truck drivers, accusing them of recklessly and driving faulty vehicles.
But the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Mining Association Workers, Dutse- Baupma branch, Alhaji Ali Adi, said motorists and motorcyclists also contribute to the high rate of accidents at the junction.
Though he did not rule out occurrence of brake failure in the trucks, he said most trucks involved in the accidents are coming from Bwari contrary to the speculations that they are from the park.
“Every day na so we dey carry corpse, you can see the sand on the ground,” Adi said in Pidgin English, adding that the truck drivers are not comfortable with the accident rates.
Adi said the motorcyclists are reckless, and often take laws into their hands.
“They have destroyed two trucks this week, and burnt one at the junction over there. When the officers of the fire service came to stop the truck from burning, the okada people stoned them,” Ibrahim Onmeshi, another truck driver at the park, said.
Onmeshi said mostly the accidents at the junction are caused by trucks coming from Bwari, which he said, are not familiar with the road. He said the absence of road sign to signify junction, children crossing or speed breakers ahead also increase reckless driving from the truck drivers.
He said the motorcyclists show complete disregard to oncoming trucks while motorists buying petrol from the petrol station by the roadside barely leave enough room for truck to pass on the expressway.
Also vehicles come with speed on approaching the speed breakers, Yahaya Bawa, another tipper driver said, commenting that tippers are not entirely responsible for the accidents.
“That car (pointing to a car by the roadside) just hit another vehicle less than 30 minutes ago, the tipper drivers have nothing to do with that, have we?” he asked.
Olusegun Samuel Adejumo said the solution is not to trade blames but for the government to provide more speed breakers while he said the tipper drivers should be more enlightened on putting their trucks in good state before taking it to the road.
On her part, Rebacca Obong, said motorists should be cautioned and traffic officers stationed at the junction. She said the measure would make road traffic offenders to be apprehended immediately.
To Adewale Alabi, there is need for the government to relocate the Tipper Garage and the activities of the motorcyclists regulated.
