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THERE is no job without its inherent risks and potential hazard. However, those hazards and degrees of risk exposures vary as the job specifications require. Safety in each occupation may then become challenging when dealing directly and physically with the public whose temperaments are different. The challenge may even become worse given the fact that ensuring compliance with traffic laws sometimes comes with enforcement. If everyone, on grounds of fear of attacks, avoids picking up jobs that would involve direct involvement with irate motorists due to enforcement of traffic laws, then no one would be available to maintain law and order in the state. As required by law, traffic managers are usually greeted with resistance by lawbreakers when they carry out their statutory duties on the road. These lawbreakers, in an attempt to escape the punishment stipulated by law for their traffic offences, resort to physical assault on the traffic managers. These traffic law enforcers and traffic controllers become more vulnerable to attack because they do not bear arms to protect themselves. Everyone must understand that traffic managers are positioned on the road to act as check and balance to road users.
It is therefore important that, in the overall interest of everyone, all road users must ensure the safety of traffic managers and controllers by adhering to laid down rules and regulations while using the roads. If any motorist is aggrieved or feels dissatisfied by the action of a traffic official, he or she is expected to seek redress by making a formal report, not by attacking the officer. Civility, not violence would peacefully resolve issues. The safety of traffic controllers and managers lies strongly in the hands of all road users. This safety can be achieved only by the traffic personnel and road users in general. No matter how security-conscious the traffic official is, he remains unsafe at his point of duty if all road users choose to disobey traffic laws and with an intention of attacking traffic law enforcers who call them to order. The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) personnel, whose primary responsibility is to control and manage traffic on Lagos roads, are duty-bound to carry out their duties in spite of the attendant risks and hazards which may range from injuries to even death. LASTMA officials, without bearing arms, still have to directly relate with irate and violent traffic offenders sometimes.
The major occupational safety challenge encountered by LASTMA officials is incessant attacks by recalcitrant traffic law violators whose only way of expressing their dissatisfaction or displeasure after being booked and issued court referral ticket for an infraction is via an assault on the traffic managers. Some LASTMA personnel, while on their lawful duties, have been maimed, paralyzed or rendered half-bodied. Others never survived to tell their stories as they were killed in their lines of duty as some violent motorists use dangerous weapons on them or knocked them down. It’s unfortunate that these traffic controllers and managers positioned on Lagos roads by the State government to ease journeys of all road users have become elements and targets of attacks by these same people (law breakers). Records and cases of violent attacks on LASTMA officials abound as the Agency has lost many of its men to this rising ugly trend. All hands must be on deck to curb the menace in order to ensure safety of traffic personnel.
The state government isn’t folding its hands at this ugly trend as security is being beefed up around LASTMA officials across the state with the deployment of police officers attached to them for seamless operation. There is also an insurance package for any LASTMA personnel who dies while on duty call as a result of accident or attacks. Traffic Management and Transportation which comes first on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s six-point developmental agenda, code-named T.H.E.M.E.S, is an indication that traffic management and control is given utmost attention. In 2019, as a boost to the morale of LASTMA personnel, the governor announced an increment in their salaries with an inclusion of hazard allowance. The upward review of their take-home was born out the fact that Governor Sanwo-Olu paid attention to the welfare and safety of these traffic managers. LASTMA officials have also been charged by the Welfare unit of the Agency to regularly go for check-ups to ensure attention is paid to their health. While serving the public, they are to imbibe the culture of paying attention to their health which would help identify any illness quickly through early diagnosis for proper treatment or management. Traffic snarls and build-ups still being experienced in some parts of Lagos are a reflection of the attendant outcome of non-compliance with traffic laws. So, it is important that every law-abiding resident of Lagos State complies with traffic laws and regulations of the State.
- Adebayo, Assistant Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of LASTMA, writes in via [email protected]
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