Posted by By Mike Ebonugwo on
IT has been said in many quarters that any description of Lagos traffic is never complete without the daily minor and major collisions and other forms of auto mishaps on different roads in the metropolis. And one common feature of the minor accidents is the noisy quarrel and sometimes bloody fights they engender.
IT has been said in many quarters that any description of Lagos traffic is never complete without the daily minor and major collisions and other forms of auto mishaps on different roads in the metropolis. And one common feature of the minor accidents is the noisy quarrel and sometimes bloody fights they engender.
One common conviction is that if commercial bus drivers are less reckless in their driving, there will be less of these incidents on the road. But recklessness, it seems is a second nature to these bus drivers who take pleasure in breaking every known and unknown traffic law in their mad rush to get to their one and many destinations. And whenever they find themselves on the wrong side of the law over an accident their recklessness has caused, their first reaction is to try to bluff themselves out of trouble by claiming to be on the right. When that fails, they resort to pleading and prostrating on the ground.
Sometimes their victim turns out to be a kind-hearted individual who is moved by the pleading to forgive whatever damage has been done to his or her car. In most cases the affected individual refuses to forgive but insists that the offending bus driver should either repair or pay for the cost of repairing the damaged car.
The latter was the case last week in Isolo when a commercial bus popularly called danfo hit a new Honda Accord car from behind, prompting passers-by to scream in mock alarm, 'You don hit my car O". Acting on the conviction that attack was the best form of defense, the danfo driver immediately jumped down from his vehicle and began to rain invectives at the driver of the car which suffered a big dent on its rear side. 'I don't know what is wrong with all these my car people. Instead of them to go and hire driver to drive them, they will be forcing themselves to drive and causing accident," he fumed in simulated anger. But the driver of the Honda car was not impressed by this histrionics, even though he initially appeared deceptively unworried by the development.
But when onlookers thought he was on the verge of letting the danfo driver go scot-free, the man re-entered his car and came out with a gun. The sight of the gun immediately created pandemonium as everyone took to his or her heels.
The danfo driver immediately fell on his knees in supplication, rambling in fear and begging to be forgiven. But the man shouted at him to enter the car and as soon as he did, the man drove the car away to an unknown destination.