A MONTH after 153 people died in the Dana air crash, the lamentations have not abetted. Motions on improving air travel safety continue. Some have lost their jobs and billions of Naira will be expended in improving airports, which national legislators rate so important that if they suffer blackouts, sessions are held on the implications as if the country was coming to an abrupt end.

When the panel investigating the crash is through, its recommendations could commence another round of wastes as was the case after air crashes in 2005 and 2006.

The value Nigerian authorities place on life depends on who dies and how he dies. Perhaps, because air travel is the preference of the high and mighty, a single air accident is mourned as if it is more fatal than road accidents that claimed more than 3,364 lives in 2011, injuring more than 17,464 people, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC. The statistics show a drop from 18,336 accidents that killed 4,065 in 2010, yet the figures are high.

Figures are higher when provisions are made for unreported cases or deaths that occur after the accidents, beyond the reaches of the FRSC.

Governments are mute about the carnage on the roads, though the roads remain the main transport platform for majority of Nigerians. The 11,034,625 domestic passengers who travelled through Nigeria’s airports in 2011 – an average of 30,231 passengers daily – pale beside millions of Nigerians who travel by road daily.

Bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles (some vehicles are too old to be on the road), use of old tyres, illiteracy, over-speeding, unlit roads, and drunkenness have been identified among the causes of the high rate of accidents.

Illegal police check points and road blocks that criminals mount are other factors. Even within the cities, there are high numbers of accidents with Abuja producing the paradox of the city with good roads having the highest number of the most fatal accidents.

The monthly average loss of 280 people by road in 2011 is almost twice the death toll in the Dana crash, yet it is treated as if it is nothing.

Official indifference to the huge losses from road accidents has resulted in less attention to the roads. Air travel has its importance to the economy, but it is still nowhere close to what road transportation does for the Nigerian economy.

Development of rail and water transportation would lessen the carnage on the roads. Tankers bearing petroleum products cause some of the most devastating accidents. The rails would be a safer means for petroleum products.

Safety on the road need urgent attention, it can no longer wait.