Curbing Ember Months Road Mishaps

As the year 2020 rotates into its last quarter, so also have the ember months namely September, October, November and December which usually herald a period of festivities and, of course, anticipation of increase in accident rate, come into focus.

Records from previous years annually released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) indicate that there were often more road accidents in the last quarter of the year in Nigeria than any other time.

Such has been the vicious circle of carnage on Nigerian roads in this period of the year that ember months have become awesome and mentioned with trepidation.

In many religions, ember months are ominous signs of a lurking evil and a time to pray fervently for calamity to be averted.

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To superstitious people, the last four months of the year is when blood-sucking vampires are out in full force to inflict destruction on humanity.

But far from attributing the usual dangers of ember months to the supernatural and evil forces, the loss of lives on Nigerian roads are self-inflicted and avoidable.

There are a number of psychological and other factors contributing to heavy casualties always witnessed at this time of the year and that is why the FRSC makes it a point of duty to embark on robust and extensive enlightenment campaign on accidents prevention.

Psychologically, as the year winds down, people tend to anticipate the festivities ahead and to eventually get into frenzy about the usually crowded activities. More so, it is a time of the year when people travel home the most to be with their loved ones.

Therefore, the highways are busier at this time and motorists caught up in the mad rush would likely be prone to accidents.

Experts have identified some of the factors that could lead to crashes on the highways as impatience and rush to make money on more trips. Impatience on the parts of drivers invariably induces over speeding and overtaking which are conditions greatly responsible for auto-crashes.

Also, greedy drivers tempted to make as many trips than necessary will definitely find themselves breaking the twin bounds of over speeding and overtaking.

Ember months are sometimes when drivers are most likely to throw caution to the winds and pay dearly.

As already said, mishaps on Nigerian roads are avoidable if only motorists will remain sober and alert and keep to traffic rules.

It is apparent that law enforcement agencies will do their best at regulating the use of the highway in the period of ember months.