I Doff My Hat For Deviants – THISDAYLIVE

Road Safety

Do you know that there are deviants among road users? I am not talking about drivers alone. I am talking about all road users, including pedestrians, motorcyclists and others. These deviants walk or rather drive on our roads with all the madness with a quiet determination to violate every provision of the National traffic Regulations as well as every acceptable norm of safe driving culture within our clime. They stop at signalised traffic lights even when there is obviously no traffic and when it is obvious the traffic lights are malfunctioning. They buckle up without being threatened by the busy body road safety marshals who would never mind their bloody business but delight to counsel you even when you are too troubled to care for their daily safety lessons.

These deviants refuse to join the bandwagon by refusing to answer phone calls while behind the wheels to show off their latest priced phone, like some of those i focused on when I wrote on the green man who have done the unthinkable-stopped at the prompt of the green man to allow pedestrians ,including school children to cross at zebra when there is actually no ‘zebra’ at sight.

These deviants are my focus this week. I have chosen to give them their flowers for choosing to be counted. If you live in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos, Port Harcourt or any of our major cities, you must have sighted these road users in cities where driving have become a theatre of war where only madness survives or better still thrives.

I am talking about cities where driving wears the semblance of the UEFA final match between Arsenal my darling Champion of English Premier League and Paris Saint Germain. During that match football rules, according to the likes of Arsenal Legend Thiery Henry as well as Manchester United legend, Wayne Rooney, football rules like traffic regulations, were treated like polite suggestions not meant to be obeyed.

In this maddening driving environment, the safety conscious drivers, stands out like the odd man. He is seen as an anomaly or even a traffic rebel and dissident against the prevailing doctrine of, if you can’t beat them, please join them in the rush to be killed or maimed.

Before I go on further, let me confess to you on the embarrassment I sometimes feel for not joining the maddening crowd especially when their automobile signature suggests that they are big, wealthy, and prominent boys as well as movers and shakers of the beloved country called Nigeria.

Just yesterday, I was again driving through a signalized junction when despite the traffic light signaling a stop, vehicles of all sorts displayed the madness that has become the traffic singsong during rush hours and non-rush hours.

I must place on records that it takes courage to be a deviant’s and law abiding in an environment where those who should lead by examples display the unthinkable, where siren blazing convey care less about reputation or about the public perception of people in authority.

If you get my drift: just imagine approaching a traffic light that has turned red and signaled stop. Common sense, traffic rules and regulations and basic self-preservation and the thought of your loved ones would suggest that you should stop.

Yet, the safety conscious driver knows that stopping may expose him to ridicule from the convoy of impatient death seeking road users behind him. Horns blazing and hands waving with curses invoked. Nevertheless, the deviant remains steadfast, choosing legality over popular craze. It takes remarkable stubbornness to remain unshakable.

The deviant who prioritizes compliance over being politically correct mannerisms has perfected the art of delayed gratification. While a handful view speed limits as offensive insults to their driving expertise, he threats them as lifesaving guidelines’. He knows that arriving late is better than to be late, that arriving five minutes late is better than ending up being masked in an ambulance.

Motoring critics accuse him of drowsy driving that betrays the capacity of today’s automobile built for high and crazy speed. Why kill the engine by failing to hit the pedal at above 100 kilometers per hour instead of drab driving at sixty kilometers per hour, they ask. Why? Why and why, they ask again?

The deviant resist these counsels from the pit of hell according to my religious colleagues. A counsel that has claimed over a million lives yearly and millions injured. He understands the road is a shared space and not a personal race track. Of all these is the habit of using the indicators to inform other road users of his intention to change lanes.

Such behaviours have become so rare that the blinking is seen as a sign of a mechanical fault instead of a polite traffic mannerism to communicate intention to others to avoid a possible road miss or mishap. In most cases, drivers tail gazing wonder why waste your time instead of just turning off the road. They forger that he is merely communicating to promote safe driving behavior.

Should we talk of seatbelt or child restraints that is a life saver for children below twelve years. Do you know that despite our success story with seat belt usage it still remains the driver and front seat passenger priority as occupants at the rear will boldly argue that it is only required for the front seat passenger.

This safety conscious driver wears it even when no enforcement officer is within reach which to me is the purest form of civic virtue. This is because it is easy to comply when someone is watching which is the story in our clime. It takes real character and discipline to buckle up when no one watches.

Indeed, if integrity means doing the right thing when nobody is watching, then buckling up on an empty road or less busy road may qualify as one of the highest forms of moral credit still available in our clime where such seem scare commodity. There are another baffling act performed by this category of driver. Vehicle maintenance is a priority. While some regards warning lights on the dashboard as

decorative features, he insists on fixing faults before they become disasters. He religiously changes worn tyres. Repairs defective brakes. Checks mirrors, lights and steering systems. In our clime we describe such as overdo or excessive caution in the face of economic hardships when faith they insist, can take care of the defaults.

Despite these bashings, the deviant persists.

How about his treatment of pedestrians. You can Christian him, Mr Greenman. Unlike others who regards pedestrians as obstacle in a video game, the deviant watches out for them and acknowledges that they possess rights and have families.

So he slows down at zebras, at schools even when the appropriate traffic signs are invisible or absent. He cuts down his speed, near schools, markets and other built-up areas. He looks out for children chasing a football and elderly person crossing a road represents a life rather than an inconvenience. To others, this is just too much excessive humanity.

If this humanity offends you, what would you say about his disdain for alcoholic beverages when he hops behind the wheel. He understands that alcohol impairs judgement, reaction time and coordination. Driving to him is too serious a business risk with distractive antics.

I know that these category of drivers are mocked daily yet they are the reason while we celebrate life; they are usually the ones who keep driving seamlessly, reduce traffic congestion caused by crashes caused by you, I mean you, lower insurance cost and spare families and society the horror of avoidable deaths and injuries. Their boring driving saves lives.

Do you know the irony;crashes attract attention. A near miss becomes a sort of joke to some, reckless overtaking is hailed as heroic yet the several safety journeys completed without an issue is rarely captured announcing a driver who drove hours without a miss. This explains why deaths and injuries make headlines while rescued figure rarely does.

Perhaps it is time to dedicate a column to celebrate such deviants celebrating those who resist the temptation to turn public roads to theater of chaos. We should give them medals for honoring pedestrians’ crossings, maintain safe following distance and refrain from converting our highways into audition venues for action movies.

Until we arrive at that decision, this column today offers flowers for drivers who have chosen to be deviants. Flowers for drivers who respect speed limits. Flowers for the commercial driver who refuses to overload. Flowers to the driver who declines distraction through phone use. Flowers to the motorcyclist who wears helmet. Flowers for the fleet operators who prioritizes safety over profit. Flowers for every operator who understands that arriving safely is more important than arriving first. Flowers to every convoy driver who drives by the rules and not the pride or ego of his principal.

In our clime where we celebrate those undeserving while ignoring true heroes, these deviants deviate from recklessness. They deviate from impatience. They deviate from carelessness. They deviate from dangerous driving. And the assumption that road crashes happen only to others. Today, I doff my hat for you. I salute you for being noble. May your kind increase. May your example spread. And may the rest of us who have a date with death detour and copy your examples of patience, safe driving, courtesy, decency on the wheel, respect for other road users and the sanctity of life. May others choose safety and cut down deaths and injuries on our roads.