The way to curb frequent fatal accidents in Sierra Leone

Whether we are aware of it or not, like it or not, can repudiate it or not, globalization has arrived in Sierra Leone. An attempt to repudiate it is bereft of the answer by now. The question we should ask ourselves at this point is: How do we go about it? The question as to whether we are prepared for it is also too late to ask as it is already there. Like all ‘isms, globalism has got its critics and almost all of them agree on one point: that about 80% of the developing world would not be prepared for that, and that they would have no time to think it out before it reaches them. And here we are in a global culture of cars, trains and global rubrics, whose language we now but have to learn while struggling to contain it in our midst.

As the maxim runs: where there is no law, there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment, there is no order.  I don´t know how long it has been there, but just last week I saw, via online pics, a traffic sign indicating the round-about at Freetown´s cotton tree. That makes the law easier to bring anyone to justice who commits a traffic crime within the area. Now what about areas, nationwide, that have no traffic signs? By the way, traffic signs are not a guarantee that there will be no accidents in the future, but rather are there to serve as a physical logic to those punished or to be punished for driving against them. In sum, to survive in a culture of cars, you need a pertinent culture of rules and regulations without which you have but no chance. And who cares – what is relevant for the western world is that you have signed the globalization pact and have accepted that your country is ready and wants to be a global player as well. Bingo – a global player!? In order to be a global player, the sages admonish, you must learn to make a step ahead in advance. I am sure many are aware of the UN Book of Globalization Laws, under which a citizen of one country may take to court the traffic institution, for instance, of another country.  Long story, but would rather skip it and go right to the crux of this piece.

This is actually a response to Stanley Bangura´s last posting on the Facebook forum on the issue of frequent fatal car accidents in Sierra Leone. Let me begin by saying that there is a solution to every human problem and this is no less true to our current traffic problem in Sierra Leone. Often we blame bad roads for car accidents, forgetting other factors that are just as important and pertinent as can be. Good roads, over speeding and alcohol are globally noted as more notorious than bad roads.

Drinking and driving is a dangerous combination and therefore a cardinal sin to drive under the influence of alcoholic insobriety.

• In France, drinking and driving are punishable by the equivalent of $1,000 fine, one year imprisonment and loss of driving license for three years.
• In South Africa, drinking and driving result in a ten-year prison sentence or the equivalent of $10,000 fine and or, in some cases, both.
• In Germany, it is enough to lose your  driving license for good for possessing one and ride a bicycle when drunk.

Every society is obliged to create rules and regulations by which the entire nation is protected and ordered. Administratively, governing a nation is like cooking fish – too much of handling will spoil it. Sometimes desperate situations require desperate solutions. The current traffic situation in Sierra Leone requires desperate remedy if it is to be contained. I am sure we already have traffic rules. However, to contain the situation, we should but double, if not triple, their seriousness. The following may be considered:

1. A fine of the equivalence of one thousand dollars, three months imprisonment and loss of license for one year for drinking and driving.
2. A fine of the equivalence of five hundred dollars for cell-phoning while driving and loss of license for three months.
3. A fine of the equivalence of seven hundred dollars for over-speeding where it is prohibited and loss of license for three months.
4. A fine of the equivalence one thousand dollars for over-loading public busses and cargo trucks and loss of license for six months.
5. When 2,3, and 4 are committed, a fine of the equivalence of five thousand dollars, three years imprisonment and a complete loss of license.

And fancy, if it would cure, it must hurt.

Administratively, it is not enough to sit in some big palace and write hundreds and hundreds of laws without a well trained and well equipped law enforcement team. Without a well trained and well equipped police to enforce the abiding of laws by all, we are still a miserable and helpless situation.

Let me but humbly undersore the fact that these suggestions are not exhaustive, but the way to a patent recipe for lasting solutions in odering our society.

Humbly yours,

Aloysius A. B. Kargbo, Muenster, Germany.

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