We couldnt care less about road safety.

Here (in the part of the world where I live), it’s very normal to see rickety rides (vehicles) of all kinds up and down our highways.
Smoky exhausts, half-shattered windscreens (some don’t even have windscreens), overloaded public transport buses (loaded down with either humans or goods) etc. It’s not uncommon to see a vehicle pointing at one o’ clock yet heading in the twelve o’ clock direction.

Some months ago, I was in one such bus. Apart from the “human cargo”, there were all kinds of goods the bus was transporting. The bus was surely carrying more load than it was designed to carry. Soon after we set out, I could smell the friction between the tires and the tarmac. Since I was in already, I knew I was gon’ have to sit through the journey. e sha no go last foreva. Halfway into the journey, there was a loud POOOOOMM!! And the bus swerved a bit. The driver (perhaps being in familiar terrain) was calm. Every passenger alighted. It was a tire erm.. (should I say rupture or explosion?) Needless to say, upon inspection the ill-fated tire was condemned.
I was irritated at the whole chain of events. We had put ourselves in needless danger. If anything seriously went wrong, we would have had no one but ourselves to blame.

We have more to lose than gain when we leave our safety to chance.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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