Road safety in Cameroon: When the need for reinforced implementation of the measures in force is necessary

Par malumiereetmonsalut Le 30/09/2024 à 00:00 0

Dossier

Each road user is responsible of she’s and others life. Image: tripadvisor.fr

The need for respect for the law to explain the Latin phrase “Dura lex sed lex” in English: “the law is hard but it is the law”, even if it seems rigorous and restrictive, is the basis of a social order who would like that even if Men is free, his freedom has limits in the sense that his actions can seriously affect the physical integrity of others or even cause death.

The basic principle of traditional Chinese medicine "prevention is better than cure" which we commonly used to mean not only that the cost of prevention is worthless compared to that of the disease, but also that in addition to taking care responsibilities as those responsible for the security of the inhabitants of an entire country, we must also make everyone face up to their responsibilities so that no one rejects the consequence of a problem on a single actor but on a group of actors each having their own part of responsibilities, is a prerequisite without which no political action whatever the area can truly be effective. In other words, if prevention is expensive, death costs even more and we must put even more resources into prevention. And what is it about?

This involves doing everything possible to reduce the negative margin of accidents on our roads as much as possible. Indeed, in 2022 according to figures published by the non-governmental organization SECUROUTE which campaigns for road safety in Cameroon, the country would have reached 3,000 human lives and 200 billion CFA francs in losses. If we can very well understand that there can be losses of human life following one or more traffic accidents, we do not always know how these accidents can cause losses to the economy of a country or Cameroon in particular. On this subject, specialists mention, among other things, the costs of medical treatment and hospitalization which are free for some, the cost of rehabilitation which sometimes takes several years, and the loss of income generated by the temporary or lasting cessation of activity. In addition, the reduction in mortality would represent a greater share of benefits than the reduction in morbidity (state of illness, more or less profound psychological or mental imbalance). The State would therefore gain more economically when the mortality rate is low or very low.

Road safety in Cameroon

Road safety as “all the measures taken to reduce the risks of road accidents and limit their consequences” has always been the subject of the attention of the various players in the road transport sub-sector. Indeed, whether in interurban transport (connections between rural areas and large cities or between several large cities), peri-urban or in the outskirts of an urban area (around a large city), or transit between corridors of conventional road transport or large heavily used route which in the field of transport planning designates large infrastructure projects which connect two States (Douala-Bangui; Douala-Ndjamena; Sangmelima-Ouesso (Congo) etc.), measures have always been implemented to prevent and reduce the scale of road accidents.

The problem lies at the level of the limits of these preventive measures for some and repressive measures for others or the fact that faced with the fact that traffic accidents for certain fatal persist, they must be further strengthened throughout the national Territory in order to improve the positive margin of accidents in Cameroon, the objective of which is set at 50%.

Transport activity in Cameroon is certainly regulated by legal texts but there are still extremely necessary prerequisites, namely: Who does what? Who should not do this? Where? And why? Indeed, in a space where everyone believes everything is allowed and sometimes even taking advantage of the fact that corruption has become habit, it was already necessary to limit the number of carriers' stopping points as specified in the ministerial note of April 2022 prohibiting road prevention and safety agents in Cameroon from stopping vehicles in transit on conventional corridors and collecting fixed fines and using metal harrows or artisanal. When we know who should not do what and where, this helps reduce fraudulent acts which are commonplace on our roads and even on our urban roads. In addition, the road transport sector in Cameroon certainly has a supervisory ministry but it is regulated by the penal code and the civil code.

Dangerous activities are regulated by article 289 of the penal code which punishes anyone who, through clumsiness, negligence, and imprudence, causes the death, injury, illness, or incapacity for work of a third party. To this must be added driving while drunk, state of intoxication, driving without a required license even if the person has not caused any traffic accident.

In these cases, the court may pronounce sentences such as: imprisonment, a fine, withdrawal of a driving license, or a ban on obtaining one for a maximum period of 2 years in the event of drunken driving of drunkenness, and a maximum duration of 3 years for homicide and involuntary injuries. In the event of a repeat offense, it is 10 years. This means that users have their share of responsibility. We cannot therefore allow ourselves, in the name of deplorable attitudes which tarnish the image of a sector of activity, to do what we want with great contempt for the law and all those who use the public highway who are all potential victims of the irresponsible attitudes of certain road users.

This is also the reason for the existence of flat rate fines for road traffic offenses including offenses considered as misdemeanors and crimes which cannot be limited to the level of a fine on a road but must rather be referred to more competent authorities to resolve this type of problem. In this case it is said that it is forbidden to arbitrate. Note that arbitration is a means of preventing and resolving a problem. If in fact, certain offenses can be settled directly on the road and require fines for this, such as for example prohibited stops, overflowing loads, failure to provide audible warnings, lack of vehicle registration documents or license plates, failure to seat belt, lack of fire extinguisher, windshield wiper, driving license, sticker or thumbnail, repair kit etc., there are offenses and especially crimes which are subject to criminal prosecution.

In Cameroon if you are responsible for the death of one or more individuals following a traffic accident you will be detained pending a possible trial. It is a very serious act which cannot be put on the same level as offenses such as lack of insurance, lack of technical inspection, overloading passengers, and others which can just as lead to death but which are of a serious nature gravity lower than that of a human death. This means that being a road user means being responsible. It is therefore first up to everyone to ask themselves what is my responsibility as a pedestrian? As a motorcycle taxi driver? As individuals and as a driver of a transport company because in each field of activity, including transport, there are codes to respect.

The road: What it is and what it is not

While specifying that there are roads in built-up areas (streets, alleys, avenues, boulevard, etc.) and roads outside built-up areas (“National, Regional, Departmental, and municipal), a road has several parts: the roadway (reserved surface for vehicle circulation), the Ditch (hole reserved for the drainage of road water), the Accotement (the space which separates the roadway from the Ditch, the Sidewalk (the space reserved for pedestrians), the Embankment (inclined shape given to the roadway), the hole designed to receive water coming from the inclined surface of the roadway, the Platform (this is the entire pavement, shoulder [Accotement], sidewalk), the Assiette (this is the entire Roadway, Shoulder [Accotement], Sidewalk, Embankment), the part of the road which takes 10m after the embankment), and the neat (construction made to lead the water from the roadway into the ditch).

But since we generally only know two or three parts, namely: the roadway, the sidewalk and the gutter to which the populations have given other functions such as: the place of deposit of post-consumer packaging for the first, place of display of goods for the second, and place of parking of bulky household waste for the third, the function of the parts of the road has been biased to such an extent that to return completely to orthodoxy or their primary functions, more preventive and repressive measures are needed, especially to change mentalities.

Also read: Road accidents and their multiple causes in the Cameroonian National Territory

Some residents in rural areas have gotten into the habit of spreading certain portions of their production on the roads. “These congestions on shoulders and sidewalks in both urban and rural areas are dangerous in addition to being illegal” in the sense that we cannot use a traffic lane for other purposes even if we consider that it is not dangerous. As time passes, certain bad acts have become bad habits which persist due either to ignorance, insufficient prevention or repressive measures.

No detail should be overlooked in a context where the number of vehicles is increasing not only due to population growth but also to the fact that more and more people are buying cars and motorcycles in order to offer paid services or No. The more cars we buy, the more road safety and prevention should be strengthened because the economic cost of road accidents is very heavy for a developing country where infrastructure deficits are perceptible in all sectors and in the transport sub-sector road in particular.

Road accidents will certainly never stop but we will always have the ability to reduce their scale through responsible attitudes which will always require more prevention and awareness campaigns on the roads on a permanent basis without forgetting the means of repression which are everything as important but which must be done with pedagogy, that is to say, by respecting the rules yourself and not behaving as if the work of prevention and road safety was reduced to repressing at all costs or seeking to trap transporters and other road users by placing themselves at non-regulatory points to sanction them. Indeed, even if this game of cat and mouse can be justified by the fact that certain road users and other transporters have gotten into the habit of being serious just for the moment of a routine check to do quite the opposite subsequently, road safety which includes preventive and repressive measures should not continue to be a kind of “witch hunt” as seems to be the case currently. No road checkpoint should be hidden. If irresponsible attitudes have been noted after crossing a checkpoint, we should perhaps put more resources into strengthening prevention and safety on our roads instead of hiding to try to surprise potential troublemakers.

In addition to the responsibilities of road users and municipalities, the government has the duty to ensure that Cameroonians travel in good conditions by increasing awareness and prevention measures but above all by taking care of road infrastructure. Fighting against road accidents also means fighting against poverty. Road users must give a favourable response to prevention and road safety efforts in Cameroon. A 2018 World Bank report on the negative impact of road accidents on the economic growth of developing countries indicates that road safety measures have the effect of improving the well-being of populations. But these efforts cannot bear more fruit if road users do not do their part. Reason why the report recommends more: the reduction and control of speed limits, the fight against drunk driving, the generalization of the general wearing of seat belts by resorting to sanctions and awareness campaigns, and finally especially the integration of the issue of road safety in all stages of road infrastructure development (planning, design, operation).

When necessities require it, everyone must get involved in this long-term struggle because the death of a third party does not only affect a group of families but an entire country. By driving responsibly we help to ensure that the State invests more, including in the road transport sector but also in other sectors of activity for the well-being of Cameroonians. It is therefore everyone's business which however means more efforts from the public authorities to achieve more satisfactory objectives.

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