The authority, as a public service agency established to regulate driving conduct and manage road traffics, should be always up to its tasks in terms of clearing the roads, regulating road users including driver, cyclists and others ensuring proper uses ensuring the roads and lives plying on them are saved.
By so doing along with real time inspections of worthy and non-road worthy vehicles and untrained drivers would in avoiding accidents on the roads.
With the spate ill capacitated drivers always display disregards for road traffic laws, leading to the alarming rate of road traffic accidents, mostly caused at night through collision into stationery vehicles, there should be every necessary need by the SLRSA to be working road the clock to save lives and clamp down on unprofessional drivers on the roads.
A robust twenty-four hours roads safety service if actually provided, the much need checks would go a long way in saving lives on the roads everywhere in the country not just along public highways. Also SLRSA corps patrols should not just be only limited to Freetown but must proactively extends regular inspections of all public highways as mandated by law. So that whichever stationery vehicle they come across a will be hauled to nearby parking lots in each and every district and regional headquarter towns and cities thereby fully enforcing the law making sure that complete roads safety regulations are complied with across the board.
The popular legitimate concerns emerge following hundreds of fatal road accident that have cost the lives of passengers SLRSA corps claim to be protecting from the troubles of road traffic calamities, caused by high level of unprofessionalism and compromises amongst roads safety corps for their personal gains. In fact, it is an open secret that road safety corps are deep neck in the tricks of extorting moneys from driver and other road users.
And quite recently a traffic warden was caught on camera receiving money from a driver. The content went viral on social media and even the mainstream media ran series of commentaries on the incident. The officer was dragged to the a disciplinary committee of the authority and later sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation for receiving bribe, but only God knows it all ended up. Yet the habits continue unabated, while faulty vehicles run by untrained drivers are taking over the roads, with frequent fatal accidents.
The troubles are always caused by amateur drivers, faulty indicator stationery vehicles, poorly examine trucks that are not road worthy, but are being permitted through compromises of SLRSA workers, either those on the road, or those deployed at the authority’s headquarter, on Kissy Road in Freetown, for their own selfish desires.
Similarly so, most times whenever SLRSA corps are enforcing the clamping of stationery vehicles, they select from among certain parking cars, clamp and haul to their parking lots those who are not connected to authorities, which is not in the best interest of the law.
Everybody is equal before and whoever finds him/herself on the wrong side of the law must face the full penalty of the law. Selective enforcements of roads traffic laws must stop immediately if we were to talk of effective management of the situation for the general benefits of all and sundry instead of the privileged few normally speared SLRSA corps.
For instances most container heavy duty vehicles plying routes from the Queen Elizabeth the II Quay are not road worthy but are always allowed carrying loads to and from the port, irrespective of the time of the day. Most of them are regularly seen transporting containers loaded of unrefined timber from several loggers’ depots in the Western Rural District.
It is now common for container trailers to venture in town day time. Although they hardly reach their destinations and whenever they breakdown due to perpetual faults, they are left dangerously parked on the Freetown Waterloo highway with no reflectors at the detriments of other road user including approaching vehicles.
Along Bai Bureh and Fourah Bay roads, as well as other major streets closer to the port are always occupied by container stationery trailers either broken down or waiting to enter the quay for collection of a container or to deliver one at the port. And most of them can park there for as long as how they want.
The fact that SLRSA is fully aware of all these misconducts on the roads is the more reasons Forum Newspaper is urging the authority to be working round the clock as a matter of saving the lives of tax payers they claim to be protecting.
Otherwise all stationery vehicles from wherever they start right into Freetown should be hauled by road safety corps in order to clear motorways for plying ones as required and mandated by the law.
These among several other lifesaving concerns are the reasons why this medium is calling on the appropriate authorities charged with the task of roads traffic management, enforcement of rules and regulations. We would also continue to humbly remind the leadership and management of the SLRSA to be working round the clock as a matter of saving lives on the roads compared to what is presently being experienced on all public highways everywhere in the country.
Sierra Leoneans lives matter afterwards and night time traffic regulations and enforcements are much needed now than ever
