Commercial bus drivers plying the highways across the country have attained the kind of notoriety that would make their colleagues in saner climes shiver, especially with the way and mannerthey dangerously manoeuvre their vehicles while driving at neck-breaking speed on the deplorable roads crisscrossing the various towns and villages.
For many of the commercial bus drivers, human life is not more valuable than the buses they commute in to their different destinations. So, whenever they are behind the wheels on the roads, they care less or so it seems, especially with their reckless manner of driving. Many of the drivers are also quick to abuse any passenger who tries to caution them for being reckless and sometimes they even threaten to physically fight you.
Similar scenario played out inside an 18-seater Mazda bus last Sunday, according to an eye witness, minutes before it got involved in a fatal accident along the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway, leaving at least six people dead and several others, including some children, seriously injured.
A survivor, who pleaded anonymity, said that at about 2pm, the driver of the ill-fated 18-seater bus identified as Ibrahim Shoroye, who had earlier been cautioned several times by some passengers over his alleged recklessness, lost control and rammed the vehicle into a stationary truck carrying a consignment of cement.
But for the men of the Federal Road Safety Commission and members of the Civil Liberties Organisation led by Comrade Yemi Enita, Ogun state chairman, who arrived at the accident scene early, the number of casualties would have been higher.
The FRSC officials, assisted by the CLO members, eventually succeeded in transferring the victims of the accident to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba and the State Hospital, Ijaiye in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Family members of some of the accident victims, who visited the hospitals to see their loved ones, however, began to threaten to institute court action against the driver, when they learnt that it was his alleged recklessness and carefree behaviour that resulted in the fatal accident.
But instead of the driver, who was lucky to have escaped from the autocrash unhurt, to placate the family members of the victims, he engaged them in a war of words and even rained abuses and curses on them at the hospital premises.
The people around the hospital, who had gathered to witness the shouting match and the unfolding drama between the driver and the relations of the accident victims, commended Ajasin for taking such an action against the driver, who they described as a “useless man used to driving under the influence of alcohol
He further incurred the wrath of the victims’ aggrieved relations, when he said that the accident was a misfortune, which nobody prayed for but occurred involuntarily.
It was at this juncture that the father of one of the surviving victims, Mr. BankoleAjasin, took offence, accusing the driver of not showing remorse for being responsible for such a fatal accident that had resulted in the loss of six lives and injuring of several others.
Further irked by the driver’s outburst, Ajasin rushed out to the nearby police station and later came back with policemen, who arrested the driver.
The people around the hospital, who had gathered to witness the shouting match and the unfolding drama between the driver and the relations of the accident victims, commended Ajasin for taking such an action against the driver, who they described as a “useless man used to driving under the influence of alcohol.”
Some of the accident victims, who sustained minor injuries, were discharged the following day.
