EACH time there is tragedy on our roads, recriminations follow, and the matter is rested. It is time government did more to make the roads safer for everyone and in this enterprise, no excuses should be accepted.

Most of the accidents in Lagos are related to the unregulated movement of heavy vehicles – trailers, articulated trucks, tankers, and buses that engage on long distance travels. They all try to squeeze their way through the heavy Lagos traffic.

It has long been established that most of these vehicles are not road worthy. The evidences are in their frequent breakdowns, break failure, and the way they disintegrate on impact with other objects.

The most recent of these Lagos accidents occurred on Tuesday morning at Ojota when a container fell off a trailer, crushing a jeep and its sole occupant to death. The man had reportedly just taken his kids to school.

In this instance, the driver of the vehicle bearing a container was not entirely responsible for the accident. A motor cycle rider got on the way of the trailer, which hit the jeep while trying to avoid the rider.

The accident raises more questions about management of traffic in Lagos, and other parts, and the so many other laws that we have that are never effected. What was a motor cycle doing on Ikorodu Road which is an off limits area for motor cycles? When will the government start implementing its limited bans on commercial motor cycles?

Daily, there are many unreported accidents involving commercial motor cycles. If this was not on Ikorodu Road and someone did not die, it would have been another incident waiting to be replicated in another part of the city.

The issues this accident raises are more.

On the major roads in Lagos, especially Lagos, there are still signs restricting times trailers and other heavy vehicles should get into Lagos. This regulation is also not implemented. That trailer had no business being on the Ikorodu Road by that time of the day and there should have been mechanisms to enforce compliance.

Again, why do containers keep falling off trailers? This is another area government has failed to enforce safety standards.

On New Year’s eve in 1998, a container fell off a trailer on the bridge at the National Stadium, and it landed on a car below, the limbs of the car’s occupant smashed to pulp in the smithereens. Those who should have acted then did not. They must have forgotten the accident.

Why are containers not hooked to the trailers bearing them? These containers and the trailers have these provisions. The authorities do not see the importance of enforcing their use. With the state of the trailers and the roads it is a miracle that containers do not fall off more often and do the type of damage that got hundreds of people weeping last week on seeing the accident.

The authorities do not need more accidents to enforce the law. They have waited for too long.