EZIOBODO FUTO ROAD IS KILLING PEOPLE.
Little PRECIOUS was almost crippled when she was hit by an over-speeding bike on that road.
OWERRI—One of the four communities surrounding The Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Eziobodo boasts the largest population of students from the institution living off campus. And this is despite the deplorable state of Eziobodo road, the major link road between the community and the university. The dirt road, coupled with poor drainage system, had had residents literally swimming in large pools of water during the rainy season for years. It was so bad that student’s vying for various positions in the SUG used constructing makeshift wooden bridges across puddles in various places as campaign strategy every year.
Fast forward to 2017, and there is a tarred road in place of the wide, intractable dirt road. We could talk about the road being quite narrow and drainage system being poorly finished, perhaps due to insufficient funding; but there is something on the ground to manage flood during the rainy season.
We gathered that the project was sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Community (NDDC), but are not quite sure what construction company did the wonderful work that is the present Eziobodo road. You could say it meets both national and international standards for road construction: a single speed bump, which is arguably enough for a short distance road. But it turns out this isn’t enough; and the consequences have been fatal.
Reckless driving on the road due to the paucity of speed bumps has resulted in spates of accidents. And these are clear pointers to the fact that the construction falls short on the standards for a road where vehicles and humans are supposed to interact in close proximity. Last year alone, right on the heels of the completion of the road, casualty toll had begun piling.
Little PRECIOUS was almost crippled when she was hit by an over-speeding bike on that road. Her mother, a single parent who struggled to make ends meet selling Kunu and Zobo on the streets, could scarcely afford the bills for proper treatment in an orthopedic hospital somewhere in Owerri.
The story is no different for Miss GLORIA EMEDOSI (Crop Science and Technology, 200) and Miss CHIWENDU (Petroleum Engineering, 100); only that they were both on the same bike when it hit another student trying to cross and slid, leaving them with terrible injuries.
Miss Gloria with knee injury.
“On that fateful day, I was on the bike with another lady going to school in order to withdraw some cash,” Miss Chiwendu told our correspondents. “The bike man was on speed, so we told him to slow down, but he turned a deaf ear. He was on speed when another student was trying to cross the road. Due to the speed, he was unable to maneuver the bike.”
The casualties culminate, perhaps, in the death of Mr. EMEKA, who was run over by two bikes mid last year. He was a 300 level Mechanical Engineering student, and had been hit while he was walking to school. This year, reports reaching us have it that two graduate students (AMAKU EMMANUEL and NGOBILI STANLEY) from Environmental Technology Department were knocked into the gutter by an over speeding car. The count will definitely continue, if nothing is done to check the menace.
Indigenes of the community have not been left out, either. One of the road-side store owners who sold fries told us about a startling experience she had had one evening, when a reckless driver lost control, pulled away from the narrow road and almost rammed into the clutch of customers around her store: “There should be speed bumps on this road to control over-speeding,” she had complained.
This is an urgent call to forestall future casualties. We hope this gets to the relevant authorities, and that drastic measures are taken.
OWERRI—One of the four communities surrounding The Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Eziobodo boasts the largest population of students from the institution living off campus. And this is despite the deplorable state of Eziobodo road, the major link road between the community and the university. The dirt road, coupled with poor drainage system, had had residents literally swimming in large pools of water during the rainy season for years. It was so bad that student’s vying for various positions in the SUG used constructing makeshift wooden bridges across puddles in various places as campaign strategy every year.
Fast forward to 2017, and there is a tarred road in place of the wide, intractable dirt road. We could talk about the road being quite narrow and drainage system being poorly finished, perhaps due to insufficient funding; but there is something on the ground to manage flood during the rainy season.
We gathered that the project was sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Community (NDDC), but are not quite sure what construction company did the wonderful work that is the present Eziobodo road. You could say it meets both national and international standards for road construction: a single speed bump, which is arguably enough for a short distance road. But it turns out this isn’t enough; and the consequences have been fatal.
Reckless driving on the road due to the paucity of speed bumps has resulted in spates of accidents. And these are clear pointers to the fact that the construction falls short on the standards for a road where vehicles and humans are supposed to interact in close proximity. Last year alone, right on the heels of the completion of the road, casualty toll had begun piling.
Little PRECIOUS was almost crippled when she was hit by an over-speeding bike on that road. Her mother, a single parent who struggled to make ends meet selling Kunu and Zobo on the streets, could scarcely afford the bills for proper treatment in an orthopedic hospital somewhere in Owerri.
The story is no different for Miss GLORIA EMEDOSI (Crop Science and Technology, 200) and Miss CHIWENDU (Petroleum Engineering, 100); only that they were both on the same bike when it hit another student trying to cross and slid, leaving them with terrible injuries.
Miss Chiwendu with injury to the face.
“On that fateful day, I was on the bike with another lady going to school in order to withdraw some cash,” Miss Chiwendu told our correspondents. “The bike man was on speed, so we told him to slow down, but he turned a deaf ear. He was on speed when another student was trying to cross the road. Due to the speed, he was unable to maneuver the bike.”
The casualties culminate, perhaps, in the death of Mr. EMEKA, who was run over by two bikes mid last year. He was a 300 level Mechanical Engineering student, and had been hit while he was walking to school. This year, reports reaching us have it that two graduate students (AMAKU EMMANUEL and NGOBILI STANLEY) from Environmental Technology Department were knocked into the gutter by an over speeding car. The count will definitely continue, if nothing is done to check the menace.
Indigenes of the community have not been left out, either. One of the road-side store owners who sold fries told us about a startling experience she had had one evening, when a reckless driver lost control, pulled away from the narrow road and almost rammed into the clutch of customers around her store: “There should be speed bumps on this road to control over-speeding,” she had complained.
This is an urgent call to forestall future casualties. We hope this gets to the relevant authorities, and that drastic measures are taken.
Comments
Post a Comment