by crossriverwatch admin
The concept may have been necessary but the execution completely lacks thought for human life. That is the story of the newly erected roundabout at the Calabar International Conference Center and Murtala Mohammed highway which has become a death trap.
Imposing and a masterpiece of sort, however, the builders of the roundabout, The Central Chinese Engineering and Construction Company, CCECC, in their usual lack of concern for the lives of the natives for whom they are employed to work, have refused to erect speed breakers or any form of warning to on coming motorists not minding the fact that the roundabout was more or less an ‘over- night’ introduction to the major highway.
And as expected, many road users oblivious of the presence of the roundabout have crashed their vehicles at the place and several lives have been lost there with vehicles mangled while the concrete blocks and the grasses planted on the roundabout have also been at the receiving end of this contempt for the road users.
Most drivers who come from outside town and may not have been aware that a roundabout was hurriedly erected there, suddenly come on the place and either climb the roundabout with their vehicles upturning on the drainage or screech to a stop right on the ornamental grasses planted atop the roundabout.
Mike, a staff of a filling station, Ghainoil which is close to the roundabout told CrossRiverWatch that accidents on the spot are a daily occurrence particularly at night when visibility is low, “Many drivers, especially those from far places like Lagos and Port Harcourt who arrive here at night and are not aware that they have built a roundabout here often crash their vehicles”.
On Thursday evening, a mangled Rivers Transport Corporation bus was seen on the side of the road leading to the International Conference Center while another vehicle which drove through the roundabout and had its front wells pulled off was on the other side.
“Each morning when we come here there are always one or two vehicles lying on the road or on top of the roundabout. The saving grace is that the wall of the roundabout is not too high, it would have been a different story by now here” Mike added.
A commuter, Abang Ajo said “it is a sad story for man to die in the heart of town after he might have called his family to say he is already in the town. Most people when they get to Welcome to Calabar call their families to say they are in town not knowing that death was waiting half a kilometer away; It is terrible”.
A Chinese staff of CCECC who serves as a supervisor of the project claims he does not understand English when contacted by our reporter and directed CrossRiverWatch to the Ministry of Works.
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