Road safety on busy highways: you are your own savior

Source: Africa Development Bank (AfDB)

Driving within Nairobi can be such a nightmare especially when everyone seems to be in a rush to beat traffic.  The nightmare increases as you exit the major highways onto the service lanes due to sudden or continuous movement of people and motorbikes, especially along highways that were predominantly residential areas before highway expansion projects began. While there are flyovers constructed across busy highways, more often pedestrians would rather risk their lives by walking (or running) across the road than ‘waste time and energy’ to access and use the nearest flyover point.  

Source: The Guardian

Unfortunately, the choice to cross a busy highway rather than use the designated pedestrian infrastructure poses a huge danger not only to pedestrians, but oncoming motorists as well. The risk worsens when the pedestrians happen to be are a group of children skating or cycling  across the road. This was my experience last weekend when a child, skating across the busy outering road, accidentally fell just seconds before our vehicle arrived. We escaped an otherwise would be car accident by a whisker. Luckily, our vehicle was on low speed at the time (approximately 25kph) so it was quite easy to brake instantly and veer off the child. Had we been at a slightly higher speed, the situation could have been worse. 

I considered it a miracle as just three weeks prior, we nearly hit a similar group of children who were playing/cycling across the same road, and around the same spot – our vehicle’s low mobility speed also happened to be our savior.  I am however left wondering whether such incidences of children running/skating/cycling/playing along/across a usually busy road is a norm. Or was it purely a coincidence in our case – a bad one for that matter.

A few lessons and tips that could be useful to you as a road user, none of these is something new so should serve as a reminder:- 

•  Be vigilant and alert especially when approaching service lanes from busy highways. You just never know when a pedestrian or motorcyclist or a vehicle driving on wrong side will suddenly show up! Better to be safe than sorry.

• Adjacent to service lanes, do not accelerate instantly once traffic clears unless you are very sure that the road ahead is clear. Again, you can never tell when a pedestrian will decide to suddenly decide to cross the road with an assumption that there are no oncoming motorists. Preferably, accelerate gradually to buy time and monitor your surroundings.

•  Avoid highway exits with recurrent pedestrian movement if you can. For example, if you do not need to use a service lane until a later exit, then there is probably no need to take it early particularly during rush hours as you add yourself an extra burden of double lookout for pedestrians or vehicles that could suddenly pull over or stop without notice.

•  Remind childrent the road safety rules for pedestrians. If you are a parent/guardian, save other road users the trouble of worrying too much about the possibility of hitting children who play or cycle across roads by teaching or reminding them the road safety rules for pedestrians.

• Ensure your brake pads and warning lights are in good shape at all times. This especially applies for lovers of fast moving automobiles but is generally necessary for all motorists. Never know when you will need to brake instantly. 

Source: National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA)

Be cautious, patient and disciplined as a road user. Even the most experienced drivers find themselves involved in road accidents. In short, you can never tell when, where or how you will be involved in a road accident. But you can prevent/reduce the probability by being cautious, patient, and disciplined as a road user - motorist or pedestrian alike. When it comes to roads you are your own savior.