KAKATA, Margibi – Last Tuesday morning, around 11:45 a.m., there was a horrific accident scene along the Madam Suakoko Highway, where a yellow Nissan taxi collided with a truck, killing a seven-month-old baby.

Since the highway was rebuilt, excessive speeding, lax enforcement of traffic rules, and inadequate vehicles have now meant that a life is lost nearly every week.

The taxi, which was being operated by Emmanuel Kamara, had crashed into the truck driven by Ayoubah Kamara, which was making a turn to go off the road.

The damage caused the infant passenger to be instantly killed. Four other passengers were critically injured.

Many commuters who travel along the highway have challenged the police and the Ministry of Transport to put in place proactive safety measures to save lives and properties.

“It scares me every day when I am traveling along this highway seeing people dying in accidents just simply being careless and disregarding the safety of theirs,” Nowah Sumo, a commuter noted.

Another commuter, Alfred Kollie, added, “For me, I think the police don’t care about us although their statutory responsibility is to protect life and property. They only come on the highway to collect money from drivers.”

On Facebook, Dorbor Dennis, a resident of Kakata posted, “The police actually need to intervene. Most drivers carelessly ply the road.”

The highway has a speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour, although few vehicles adhere to that rule.

While the Liberia National Police has checkpoints stationed along the highway from Monrovia to Ganta, the officers almost always let through vehicles and drivers who are violating the Vehicle and Traffic Laws.

In fact, commercial sedans traveling between Ganta and Monrovia do not leave the parking station until they have six passengers, in addition to the driver – this means there are six people spread across four seats. The illegal loading of vehicles is not only condoned by the police, but also by the union of drivers as the union issues receipts to passengers before vehicles leave the station.

Moreover, the Ministry of Transport is also complicit as register vehicles and give drivers the permission to drive on Liberia’s roads without any safety inspection. As a result, vehicles often lack functional headlights, seatbelts, brakes, and airbags.

Liberia has the third highest rate of traffic deaths in the world, with 1,448 deaths estimated to have occurred in 2013 and 33.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Featured photo by Emmanuel Toe