With attention turned to Boko Haram and suicide bombers in the North-East, government looked away as killer drivers continued to spill blood on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. It is possible that many of such deaths were not recorded.

There is a law on speed limit which states that drivers must not go beyond 80 kilometres per hour, on the very long bridge which brings the mainland closer to the island, following the path of Eko and Carter Bridges, constructed earlier by regimes before the advent of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

However, like many things in Nigeria, that law remained on paper, with no action taken against suicide drivers. The media continued to call attention to the gory happenings on the bridge. That is the route often plied by top government officials anytime they visit Lagos.

Several times in the past, officials of the Federal Ministry of Works closed the bridge for repair works. During partial closure, the same deadly trend continued, the number of available lanes did not deter reckless drivers from observing the speed limit. Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, seems to have departed from his predecessors.

On April 4, 2024, while reopening the bridge after yet another rehabilitation, he reminded road users of the 80 kilometres per hour speed limit. The minister spoke through one of his subordinates. Following that reminder, the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) swung into action, threatening to prosecute defaulters.

To make enforcement easier, there are now electronic devices and Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) installed on the bridge – a first in the history of the 34-year-old edifice. Government does not operate in a vacuum. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) had not lived up to responsibility on the bridge.

Their officers are more active on other Trunk A roads on the mainland and several inner city roads. There were no consequences in August 2016 when a multiple crash involving three vehicles occurred.

Five persons, including two children, perished. It passed as part of the regular rituals performed on that bridge. Only those who lost loved ones felt the pain.

Before them, there had been several deaths. In 1992, Sports Editor of the Daily Times Newspaper, Tunde Sadiq, died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident on the bridge.

He was coming from a meeting with the then Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Chief Alex Akinyele. Around the same period, a female driver had a flat tyre and was at a loss on how to fix it on the ever so busy bridge.

No Individual or group of persons should be above the law. Government convoys are not running for gold in a 100 metres dash, they do not care about speed limits.

A Good Samaritan stopped to help her out. After fixing the tyres, sadly an overspending driver ran over the man reducing him to bloody pieces of flesh. Emotions flowed, tributes followed. Everything died down within weeks and the bloodletting continued.

The bridge became more notorious as a place for committing suicides as there were cases of people jumping into the lagoon from the structure. The FRSC did not insist on adherence to the 80 kilometres per hour speed limit. Change of number plates, call for weapons training and hike in drivers licence fees took precedence over safety of lives on the country’s longest bridge.

In August 2017, a two star general, Air Vice Marshal Olufunsho Martin, and his driver, lost their lives when his Ford Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) plunged into the lagoon. So much hell was raised as much as the noise that trailed the death of two persons when an 18-seater bus somersaulted on the newly resurfaced bridge flinging two passengers into the lagoon recently.

It Is criminal for any motorist to drive on the Third Mainland Bridge like an F1 racer, this madness must stop. Many lives have been wasted because of the recklessness of drivers, young and old, male and female.

LASTMA must pay more attention to the bridge users than mainly harassing drivers in traffic. No one individual or group of persons should be above the law.

Government convoys are not running for gold in a 100 metres dash, they do not care about speed limits. This is not acceptable. Umahi, being a former governor and senator, should address his former colleagues on this. The penalty for over speeding on the bridge must be very stiff.

A suicide driver should not have the option of paying a fine, instead a place in jail for a good number of years will send a message across to others who see themselves as real life James Bonds.

There is also a need for enough enlightenment on the 80 kilometres per hour rule. An illiterate driver from outside Lagos, for instance, may not have heard of the speed limit all his life, because there are no similar bridges known to him.

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