In my formative days in post-independence Kenya I distinctly remember lessons on how to cross a road. It went something like ‘look right, look left, look right again and if clear cross’. Another was to always walk on the path alongside the road and not on the road and another still was to respect motorized traffic whether while on foot, riding a bicycle or whatever. Any deviation from any of these expected rules witnessed by your parents or any other responsible adult was met with harsh words or a clout across your head. I can’t recall if it was one of the lessons in urban schools or if one of the traffic policemen came in to give this sage advice to the young impressionable minds of the day….but it did happen!!
I am just wondering if these lessons are still instilled in the young Kenyans children of today and just what sort of role models we are as adults for our children. The reason that I ask this is because I am disturbed and perturbed by the number of adults (mainly men) walking and cycling on the roads competing for space with motorized vehicles doing their best to get run over even where the pedestrian paths exist and are free of pedestrian traffic. This phenomenon (or is it foolishness) is mainly seen in the urban and peri-urban areas of Kenya’s towns and cities.
What gets into the minds of our men folk to risk life and limb to appear invincible and macho walking on the road while courting death or permanent disability often talking on their phones, listening to thier phone radios and many times walking two or three abreast? Do they think that a vehicle has a mind of its own and will automatically swerve or stop if it ‘sees’ a human being in front of it? Don’t they realize that a brush with a car doing 30 kilometers per hour will almost certainly result in injury if not death? Don’t they also know that the impact of a vehicle doing 40 km/h destroys a human body far more gruesomely then a bullet from a gun? Almost certainly they do not because those who have been victims of road accidents are either six feet under or maimed and paralyzed by their ordeal and unable to narrate their story to those dicing with death.
I am sure that one of the leading causes of vehicular accidents involving pedestrians is as a result of this foolishness probably borne out of ignorance or a sense that vehicle owners and drivers owe some form of compensation to those that do not drive. Well they certainly owe no one an apology if they drive and this kind of risqué behavior is irresponsible and foolish and should stop!! Drivers more often then not are a mix of careless, drunk, half blind, catatonic, upset, deranged, stressed and harrased people who probably devote 50% of their time driving and the other 50% dealing with other personal issues and many a time may not be able to avoid a pedestrian walking on the road shoulder resulting in an accident.
I am even more disturbed to see that school children in full uniform are now cavorting with death and disaster by walking carelessly and haphazardly on our roads probably in the mistaken belief that society owes them a favor by slowing down whenever they are spotted walking home from school and vice versa. I wonder who taught them that this is how it is done, or is it the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ syndrome that they have inherited from their fathers?
The stupidity gene is no longer recessive and seems to have become a very aggressive one judging from the antics we see on our roads today. I believe many motorists have been forced to apply full emergency brakes when a child dashes across the road as victims of this backward behavior. Worse still is the instinct to blame the driver of the vehicle for the resulting accident and any injuries or fatalities sometimes leading to a severe beating or mobbing of the driver of the vehicle by the congregating mob.
I would beseech our menfolk, if for nothing else, to stop this risky behavior so as to safeguard the lives of our children. Learn to use the pedestrian crossing where available or use the more than ample walking lanes and cycling lanes on the newer roads which have been designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment