His hands trembled as he made to take a sitting position on the mat. The agony, pains and anguish glowed terrifyingly in his eyes. It is one of the most difficult periods in the life of 60-year-old Christian Nwaeme who has lived with the stings of stroke over the last eight years. Once a bubbling man full of life, the ailment has confined him to a spot for most part of that period. But the death of his wife, Anthonia and third son, Chibuzor in the most tragic manner in the early hours of Friday January 23, 2015, at Ketu bus stop, one of the busiest parts of Lagos, was the last straw to an already bleeding wound. The tragedy not only took away the family’s breadwinner, it extinguished what’s left of the 60-year-old’s peace.“What is my sin in this world,” Nwaeme quipped, fighting back tears as he turned to our correspondent. His voice would melt even a heart made of steel. “Who have I offended,” he continued. “I have suffered too much in this life and now the only person who stood by me and gave me hope is gone. Why didn’t death take me away instead of my wife and son? I am completely paralysed and cannot do anything. How do I take care of four children in this condition? Just seeing them and not being able to cater for them breaks my heart. The pain is too much for me to bear,” he said.
Cruel fate
Anthonia, 49, had set out few minutes before 5:00am with her 14-year-old son in search of the family’s daily bread. They were heading to the Mile 12 market where she had a stall of food stuff and cooking ingredients. It was from the proceeds that she trained her five boys and also took care of her husband whose condition has defied all medical solutions so far. She was the pillar of the family – food, clothes, rents and other bills all depended on her. But by five minutes past 5:00am, while waiting to board a bus at Ketu, tragedy struck. An articulated vehicle carrying two fully loaded containers crashed into a pack of buses after its driver lost control of the wheel. By the time the dust settled, mother and son were gone. One of the containers, in the thick of all the chaos, fell on them, crushing both to death. The incident destroyed three buses, leaving one of the drivers partially blind and several others seriously injured. The news not only brought the Nwaemes who are from Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State sorrow, it has painfully changed the course of their lives.
Bumpy road ahead
Occupying a two-room apartment barely convenient for them, the Nwaemes now face challenges on several fronts. Apart from the struggle to put food on the table, piling bills like house rent, school fees and other pressing needs now add to the family’s worry. They have survived the last few days through their neighbours’ benevolence. It is indeed a critical period for them.
“The family has been eating through the support of neighbours who give money and food,” said Kenneth Anene, a close relation. “But there is house rent to be settled, the children’s school fees and other urgent needs to attend to. Now that the breadwinner is gone, only God knows what will happen to the children’s education and the health of their father who has stroke.
“The woman was the spine of the family, she was a very hardworking person who would leave home very early in the morning, return in the afternoon to make food for her family before going back to the market where she would trade till late in the evening. Her entire life was dedicated to giving her family a good life. She was the one looking after their father who has been down with stroke for the past eight years. Her death is a big blow to every one of us,” he said.
Gone with the wind
Anthonia had over N100, 000 cash and a withdrawal booklet on her at the time of the accident, the family toldSaturday PUNCH. It was the money she had been saving for several months and hoped to expand her business at the end of the month. It disappeared at the scene of the accident along with her mobile phone. Family members say the number has remained unreachable since that time.
“She had all her business money on her that morning,”Nwaeme explained. “She wanted to save some at the bank before the end of the month when she planned to put it into her business. But when some of our people arrived at the accident scene, the money and her phone were gone.
“Initially, our people couldn’t find the corpses at the scene and even all the places we were directed to. But later we got a hint from some people and then eventually traced the bodies to a hospital at Jibowu. They are still in the mortuary,” he said.
A cry for justice
A lawyer, Mr. Peter Azubuike, who has been pressing for justice on behalf of the family, told our correspondent that they are willing to settle the matter out of court if the owner of the vehicle compensates them for their loss. If an agreement cannot be reached, however, the court would decide the outcome, he said.
“The accident happened as a result of recklessness on the part of the driver and owners of the truck. If you look at the vehicle very well, you would agree with me that it was not even supposed to carry a container of that size because it did not have anything to hold it down. This is the only country where such happens and nobody is saying anything.
“We had to pay N75, 000 before the bodies could be embalmed at the mortuary. Every day, the mortuary charges the family N1, 400 for the two of them. This is too much for the family to bear. People who are struggling to survive and now you throw them into an even bigger problem.
“Accidents are not planned, so we understand that it was an unfortunate incident. If the people are willing to compensate the family, then we would settle it amicably because we want the bodies to be buried as soon as possible,” he said.
The driver of the truck who initially fled the scene of the accident for fear of being lynched by the angry mob who gathered shortly after the tragedy later turned himself to the police at Alapere where the case is under investigation, according to Inspector Mojisola, officer in charge of the matter. She confirmed to our correspondent earlier in the week that the driver was in their custody.
A regime of avoidable tragedies
Sad as it is, this is not the first time containers carried by trucks would fall on vehicles or pedestrians, crushing many to death in Lagos. The latest incident is among a growing list of fatalities. On July 25, 2012, a young lady was killed at the Berger end of the Lagos/Ibadan expressway when a container tipped off the back of a truck and fell on her. The incident was reported to have occurred at about 7:00am.
Months later on November 21, 2012, three persons lost their lives when a container fell on the Mazda car they were riding in. The driver of the car, who was the fourth occupant, was left in a critical state by the tragedy which happened along the Badagary/Seme expressway at about 1:15pm.
On June 7, 2013, an unidentified man died along the Agege Motor Road when a container fell on an Eko meat van. The victim, said to be a manager with a top mobile phone dealer in the Ikeja area of the city, was walking to the office when the incident happened. Two occupants of the meat van later died in the hospital, according to reports. The driver of the truck was said to have lost control of the wheel after one of his tyres burst.
A mother and her four children were among 10 persons whose lives were cut short on Christmas day of 2013 along the Alaba Suru area of the metropolis when a 40ft container fell on their bus. The sad incident which took place at about 9:00am left a handful others badly injured. Several other unreported cases like these take place regularly on Lagos roads.
Though, there have been calls for the outlawing of articulated vehicles carrying containers within the city at daytime, those clamours have not elicited any positive response from Lagos State and federal governments. Many of such trucks move containers across different parts of the city with nothing to strap them.
Sociologist, Okundaye Ibe, told Saturday PUNCH that needless deaths like these would continue to occur except government takes the right step by investing in other forms of transportation especially the railway system.
“In this age and time, it is so shameful to see heavy-duty trucks with huge containers fighting for space on the road with other smaller vehicles and even pedestrians. In saner climes, this never happens because you have an effective rail system through which goods and other products are transported within and outside a state.
“But because our government has refused to do the right thing and properly develop infrastructure like good roads and effective transportation system, everybody gets on the road regardless of the danger they pose to the others. It is in the process of this scramble that fatalities are recorded. It is no rocket science, as long as our roads are bad and government shies away from its core responsibilities, we cannot avoid tragedies like this,” he said.
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