End of Night Journeys

Cameroon’s Transportation high brass recently announced a ban on night journeys with special reference to public transport service. This ban is to take effect from Wednesday, April 27^th, 2011 and would supposedly assist in the ongoing feud against road accidents.

This decree comes in the wake of several ghastly car accidents such as that which took place on the Douala-Yaounde highway this month leading to the death of at least 35 persons. Just yesterday, April 25^th, this blogger took a trip from Buea to Yaounde and saw two corpses on the road, the result of two different fatal accidents in two different localities, all clustered within the area between Buea and the Mongo Bridge (far less than a tenth of the entire distance covered within the journey). As the journey progressed, evidences of accidents multiplied. Thus, it is no wonder the Ministry of Transportation has launched an all-out attack against road accidents and is employing every strategy possible.

The ban on public night travel has elicited a mixed reaction from citizens. The main concern raised by citizens has been about how such a move would affect the time management strategies bolstered by the existence of night travelling. That is, the ability to save the entire day for work by devoting the nighttimes for travelling instead of merely sleeping. Others question whether it has been ascertained that more accidents take place in the night than in the daytime.

To these questions, a driver working for an inter-urban transport company, Mr. Stephen, attempts a response. According to him, when drivers stay awake at night because they are on the job, they lose concentration during the daytime and some even fall asleep on the wheel, leading to disastrous accidents.

Moreover, Mr. Stephen adds, Cameroonians were well-able to do without night travelling before it was instituted by a transport company in Bamenda about eleven years ago with others following suit. Thus, it follows that they can survive without it now. Mr. Stephen declares absolute support for the ministerial decree, saying it would ease the distress of drivers who had their workload increased by the advent of night travelling, but experienced no corresponding surge in their salaries.

Cameroonians are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the ban notice, but as history has repeatedly proven, they would, albeit some mumbles and grumbles, probably adapt to the new system. However, what our nation’s history cannot predict is whether the frequency of accidents would actually reduce.