Back to school… Rentrée scolaire… is fast approaching and it’s on everyone’s mind and ticking in everyone’s head. It’s the topic of every conversation and a thousand and one transactions. With just less than ten days to go, its first signs are visible in every shop and almost at every corner on the street.
While the start of the school year brings sweet memories and the joy of friendly reunions for some, to the younger population it is instead a source of violent and frequent headaches. This does not only concern low income parents who are obliged to toil to meet up with needs, priorities, emergencies and daily life struggles.
This does not only concern teachers and authorities who are already preparing the premises to welcome their students and updating books and administrative documents while trying to remain friendly to cope with impatient and ill-tempered parents.
This concerns the agents of the Ministry of Transport, the police and gendarme officers, who are responsible for managing the seasonal influx of people on our transport roads. The back to school essentially triggers a vast movement that affects every nook and cranny of the country. It is obvious that safety must be ensured in order to enable users, particularly road users, to arrive their various destinations hitch-free.
Despite the presence of road signs and sign boards indicating death tolls, it is clear that level-headedness and the sense of responsibility are not the strengths of our road users. Transport vehicles continue to be uncomfortable and overloaded. Their drivers are compelled to take more trips as possible to the detriment of human life.
Furthermore, private cars that hit the road as if they were practising auto racing or heavy duty truck drivers who do not only act like bullies, but often choose to breakdown on bends, forgetting to use appropriate signs to indicate their presence, even though they are intended for this purpose.
Motorcyclists who weave recklessly between moving cars, pedestrians and street hawkers are the other actors who make traffic on our roads more problematic, even dangerous. To avoid seeing this euphoria turn into deadly anarchy, all these people must constantly be brought to order.
This daunting task is to be carried out by the current road safety system, whose personnel and resources of the Forces of Law and Order have been beefed up. Thanks to station and mobile units, overspeeding has been curbed, drink-driving is less prevalent, vehicles comply with the manufacturer’s operating standards and theft has been drastically reduced.
However, this mission cannot be fully accomplished unless we all play our part to achieve the collective goal of an accident-free back to school. So, together, let’s rise to the challenge of road safety !!!
Capitaine de Vaisseau Cyrille Atonfack