Commercial buses, taxis, and minibuses a must safety practise in Nigeria

[Queen Julie]

I had a terrible experience last week with a commercial vehicle on the highway. My destination was from one City to another City in Bayelsa State, specifically Yenagoa. The vehicle I entered was beautiful from the outside. It was a Sienna. After loading all passengers, we left the park. Only after leaving the park was the car driving slowly. The driver said the engine needed a few minutes to warm up. We all agreed. Lo and behold, it was more than 1o minute we were still moving slowly on the highway, for that matter. This time we were about to climb a flyover. We all know how risky climbing a flyover with low acceleration is, right?

To cut the story short, it took us 4 hours to get to our destination when the actual duration should have not exceed 1hr 30 minutes. The car was also smoking. As an asthmatic patient, the smoke was bad for my health. Meaning we, the passenger have to inhale Carbon Monoxide (CO) for a straight 4 hours. Very harmful to health.

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

[Spaceman1000$]

I had a terrible experience last week with a commercial vehicle on the highway. My destination was from one City to another City in Bayelsa State, specifically Yenagoa. The vehicle I entered was beautiful from the outside. It was a Sienna. After loading all passengers, we left the park. Only after leaving the park was the car driving slowly. The driver said the engine needed a few minutes to warm up. We all agreed. Lo and behold, it was more than 1o minute we were still moving slowly on the highway, for that matter. This time we were about to climb a flyover. We all know how risky climbing a flyover with low acceleration is, right?

To cut the story short, it took us 4 hours to get to our destination when the actual duration should have not exceed 1hr 30 minutes. The car was also smoking. As an asthmatic patient, the smoke was bad for my health. Meaning we, the passenger have to inhale Carbon Monoxide (CO) for a straight 4 hours. Very harmful to health.

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

There is what we call roadworthiness, and whenever the vehicle inspection officer( VIO) sees a moving vehicle, he is supposed to thoroughly check the roadworthiness of that vehicle, even sometimes the road safety officials usually does all of that, so it's not as if there is no government agency that is responsible in tackling some of these things, they just need to be proactive, because it will help to prevent accident and wastage of time, imagine a journey that is for 1 hour 30 minutes lasting for 4 hours.

[Yablee0]

I had a terrible experience last week with a commercial vehicle on the highway. My destination was from one City to another City in Bayelsa State, specifically Yenagoa. The vehicle I entered was beautiful from the outside.

That's why it's not always right judging a book by its cover. Make sure you access and observe everything observation before drawing conclusion in every situations so you wouldn't be mislead by the outlook.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.

Then who will carry out this test you're talking about? You're sounding as If you are not in Nigeria again. The thing is for you to pray you didn't get into situation like that and that's it.

2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so

That is okay if you can be able to spot any. But I doubt if that will change anything. You know we are in a system that isn't working so you can rarely see authorities taking appropriate action against defaulters.

3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

That's what everybody is wishing for. Because we can barely survive talk more of buying a car, what I'm even saying. What about the current situation of fuel? Everything is Just somehow to be sincere.

[Qhunman]

I had a terrible experience last week with a commercial vehicle on the highway. My destination was from one City to another City in Bayelsa State, specifically Yenagoa. The vehicle I entered was beautiful from the outside. It was a Sienna. After loading all passengers, we left the park. Only after leaving the park was the car driving slowly. The driver said the engine needed a few minutes to warm up. We all agreed. Lo and behold, it was more than 1o minute we were still moving slowly on the highway, for that matter. This time we were about to climb a flyover. We all know how risky climbing a flyover with low acceleration is, right?

To cut the story short, it took us 4 hours to get to our destination when the actual duration should have not exceed 1hr 30 minutes. The car was also smoking. As an asthmatic patient, the smoke was bad for my health. Meaning we, the passenger have to inhale Carbon Monoxide (CO) for a straight 4 hours. Very harmful to health.

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

Your story was interesting, I had to read the whole thing to know exactly what transpired in the end. what crosses my mind while I was reading your post was that I thought the driver was part of a kidnap syndicate, so I thought he was slowing down the car on purpose while he was climbing the fly over so that his gangs could block the car and kidnap you guys.

You guys were just lucky that he wasn't slowing down with the intentions to have you guys kninaped.   Many of these drivers you see are part of a rituals/kidnap gangs. They will move their passenger to a particular place under the excuse of following shortcuts straight to where their gangs are waiting, ready to ambush and kidnap passengers.

[Africolo]

I had a terrible experience last week with a commercial vehicle on the highway. My destination was from one City to another City in Bayelsa State, specifically Yenagoa. The vehicle I entered was beautiful from the outside. It was a Sienna. After loading all passengers, we left the park. Only after leaving the park was the car driving slowly. The driver said the engine needed a few minutes to warm up. We all agreed. Lo and behold, it was more than 1o minute we were still moving slowly on the highway, for that matter. This time we were about to climb a flyover. We all know how risky climbing a flyover with low acceleration is, right?

To cut the story short, it took us 4 hours to get to our destination when the actual duration should have not exceed 1hr 30 minutes. The car was also smoking. As an asthmatic patient, the smoke was bad for my health. Meaning we, the passenger have to inhale Carbon Monoxide (CO) for a straight 4 hours. Very harmful to health.

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

I encounter one like that on my way going for an engagement and I was very pissed off because the vehicle wasn't moving and I needed to meet up where I was going, some of this vehicle are supposed to be checked by road safety officials so as to know if they are in good condition before allowing them to ply the road than putting the passengers at risk and wasting their time on the road, but they neglect their duties and be collecting money from the drivers not minding if their vehicles are safe to use for public transport, some vehicle that are being used is near to scrab yet it's in usage.

Most persons would have gotten their personal vehicles but where is the money?, so I'm always very observant of the buses I enter while traveling, some of this drivers drink and drive which is against the road driving rules, many drivers are careless and they end up endangering the lives of their passengers so the transportation sector needs to be scrutinized by the appropriate quarter to ensure safety of the passengers.

[Marvelockg]

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

If we are to do a thorough check on most of the public vehicle that are on the ay, 80% of them are not road worthy but because we don't have people that are intentional with regulating these vehicle, every and anything just goes with them.

If you have ever travelled on the sea coast and see the kind of engine boat that is used to convey people, you will know that arrival is just on God but because there are no better alternative, people just have to rely on those means of transportation as their only hope. Clean and new buses are quite expensive and most commercial drivers cant afford them. it is just that maintenance culture is bad in this country if not most of those cars that look quite unkept helps a lot in providing cheap transportation.

[Queen Julie]

My main purpose in writing this is to create awareness of public vehicles meant for transportation.

1. Public vehicles should always pass driving tests regularly to ensure the safety of passengers.
2. If you notice any driver who uses a faulty vehicle to carry passengers, report the vehicle to the transportation union. It is our right to do so
3. Don't hesitate to buy your own car if you have the money.

If we are to do a thorough check on most of the public vehicle that are on the ay, 80% of them are not road worthy but because we don't have people that are intentional with regulating these vehicle, every and anything just goes with them.

If you have ever travelled on the sea coast and see the kind of engine boat that is used to convey people, you will know that arrival is just on God but because there are no better alternative, people just have to rely on those means of transportation as their only hope. Clean and new buses are quite expensive and most commercial drivers cant afford them. it is just that maintenance culture is bad in this country if not most of those cars that look quite unkept helps a lot in providing cheap transportation.

When did you find out that there are no bodies in charge of regulating vehicles? Road safety authorities regulate these bodies, and every motor park in a state has a union. In that union, a committee is formed to go to different parks and check out vehicles to ensure they are in good condition before leaving for a journey. But no, these people don't do their work. If they go there, they go to take fines and bribes. That's all they have been doing.

Practically, the lack of safety measures happens in all transportation systems. Land, sea, and air. Was it last week that a military plane crashed in a neighboring village in Delta State? I heard that all 13 military personnel in the aircraft died, and their bodies went missing. The crash was caused by faulty machinery before takeoff.