By Adedotun Ajayi

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No fewer than 18 persons were feared dead in an accident on Sunday, involving two Mazda and Previa buses around Isara Bridge on Lagos-Ibadan express road.

This was contained in a statement by the  Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)  Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO),  Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) , Bisi Kazeem.

Kazeem said the accident which occurred at about 10:20pm after the Isara bridge involved about 25 persons.

He explained that the accident was caused by Road Traffic Violation (RTV) and over speeding which led to multiple fatal accident.

According to him, out of the 25 people involved in the accident, six males, one female and one male child were identified while  17 others were unidentified.

“The collision of the  two Mazda buses with unidentified colours and registration numbers with the Previa bus,  resulted in an  explosion which engulfed the three vehicles.

“However, seven passengers in the two Mazda buses on the right lane survived while others were caught up in the inferno and got burnt beyond recognition.

“And those in the Previa bus also got burnt beyond recognition, ” he said.

Corps Marshal, FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi said motorists should avoid night travels, adding that life has no duplicate, hence the need to drive with caution.

Oyeyemi said that road traffic violations and speed heightened the spate and fatalities of road traffic crashes during night travels.

He advised all road users to endeavour to drive safely to save the lives of other road users by adhering to traffic rules and regulations.

The FRSC boss assured citizens that the Corps was working effectively to ensure a significant shift in the attitude of motorists and all road users across the country, he noted.

According to experts, naturally a lot of people are nocturnal; the communion between them and night is indestructible, while others find themselves stuck out late at night due to unforeseen circumstances. Situations occasionally arise when we must travel at night or even find ourselves still on the road at night no matter how much we try to avoid it. What’s wrong with traveling at night? Experts say that risk to life has jumped from 20% to 60% at night.

Reacting to this, Ayodeji Ayanleye, a public health educator said driving at night can never be as driving during the daytime. They are two things. “Our ability to drive relies on sight, our ability to see goes down with darkness when darkness comes around. In the absence of sunlight, darkness will gradually strangle your ability to see very well. Your depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision are all tampered with.

He emphasized on the change of light intensity and blur effect of night driving on the vision of drivers which increases the probability of road crashes at night. Under this circumstances; according to him, when light levels are reduced, the pupil of the eyes open up in size to admit more light.

Continuing, Ayodeji said “since the human eye takes time to adjust to new levels of light, a driver on night trip suffers temporary vision impairment when moving from bright areas(motor way intersections in the urban centres) to dark areas(rural areas where there is minimal road lights)”.

At night, be assured you’ll be dealing with drunk drivers, sleep-deprived drivers, and frustrated animals on the road,” he said.

According to Joshua Ilori, business owner and road user, said most of the major roads in the country are not in good shape. With Nigeria being the giant of Africa, we should have passed the level of having dilapidated major roads. Most of the major roads linking states are death traps. We unintentionally run into these potholes during the day time let alone at night.

“How would you manage the situation if your car eventually got spoilt in transit? How prepared are you to go about it?

It can be very frustrating to have your car spoilt at the middle of the road most especially at night. You’re even prone to being attacked by robbers and hardly will you get a helper; everybody will be afraid.

Travelling in a country like Nigeria with the rise in insecurity isn’t safe not to talk of in the night, traveling at night in Nigeria of today is very risky,” he added.

According to a Civil Engineer who preferred anonymity said there are numerous factors which negate night-time travels in Nigeria at the moment such as the poor state of roads, inadequate rescue services, fatigue, inadequate road signs/markings and poor vehicle maintenance culture by drivers.

“Drivers tend to overspeed, since the road is free at night forgetting that the maintenance of their vehicle is nothing to write home about and again, vision is not always clear at night.

Therefore, the danger is that the driver can hardly see clearly, yet he overspeeds. Accident is inevitable in that situation.

To make matters worse, it is a bit difficult to get help if one is involved in accident at night, because everywhere is deserted. That makes the casualty rate higher,” he said.