Reflections on the Anthony Joshua crash [OPINION]

By Simon Kolawole

When news broke that Anthony Joshua, a former world boxing champion, was involved in a crash on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, many things went through my head simultaneously. Was he driving? Was he speeding? Did a trailer ram into his car? Was he trying to avoid a pothole? My head was spinning. The initial stories were confusing. When I went on social media, some said his car rammed into a trailer parked in the middle of the road. Some blamed “bad roads” and celebrated that Nigeria had finally “happened” to Joshua. The naysayers rejoiced probably not because they hated him but they saw the tragedy as another golden opportunity to promote their “Nigeria is finished” campaign.

As the details began to emerge hours later, the picture became clearer, if not completely clear. A trailer was parked by the road side on the three-lane road, not in the middle of it. The Lexus SUV in which Joshua and his close friends, Sani Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, were riding collided with the trailer. But what went wrong? Did the car have a tyre blow-out? Did the brake fail? Was the driver trying to overtake a vehicle on the wrong side and suddenly saw the parked trailer? Was he driving under the influence (DUI)? Was he sleeping on the wheel? One thing I suspect seriously is that the car was speeding above the limit. The image of the wreckage offers significant insight into this.

The official reaction to the tragedy has been swift — the driver, Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, has been charged to court by the police on four counts: dangerous driving causing death, reckless and negligent driving, driving without due care and attention, and driving without a valid driver’s licence. Kayode was granted bail for N5 million. The punishment, if found guilty, is life imprisonment for manslaughter. This sort of criminal trial is not uncommon when drivers cause deaths, but this is a high-profile case and that is why it is in the news. The driver’s son claims it was brake failure that caused the crash, although we will be forced to wonder how he came to that finding on his own.

The Joshua crash is not your typical story of how dangerous Nigerian roads can be. From all indications, the driver has a lot of questions to answer on this one. The conventional story would be for a driver to ram into a stationary heavy-duty truck in the middle of the road. Only God knows how many Nigerians have been killed in this manner. Too many to count. A famous one was in 1991 when Chief Ben Osi Umunna, a UK-based Nigerian philanthropist and businessman who was on the boards of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu and Queens Park Rangers of London, rammed into a trailer on Enugu-Onitsha road. He died instantly. These tragic things happen from time to time.

May I also add that accidents happen everywhere in the world, so I am not suggesting that these tragic events are peculiar to us. Just last year, Liverpool player, Diogo “Jota” Silva, and his brother, Andre, died instantly in a car crash in Zamora, Spain, while apparently speeding. José Antonio Reyes, the Spanish footballer who played for Arsenal of England and Sevilla of Spain, died along with his cousin, Jonathan, in a car accident in 2019. Paul Walker, known for playing Brian O’Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise, died in a car crash along with his friend, Roger Rodas, in Los Angeles in 2013. The fact is that tragic accidents happen every day all over the world, and famous people are not immune.

While Nigeria may not have the world’s worst statistics in terms of road accident fatalities, the Joshua crash raises a number of questions both directly and indirectly — and we can only hope that policy makers will pay close attention and learn something from the tragedy. When I saw the videos of the rescue operations by concerned passers-by, the first thing that came to mind was the lack of basic understanding of first aid for victims in emergencies. Joshua did not seem to be bleeding externally, but he could have been bleeding internally. That is a more serious situation. But the way he was handled could have worsened the situation. Moreover, he was kept at the scene for far too long.

That again raises the question of our response to emergencies. I am not blaming the public-spirited individuals who instantly came to their rescue. That is what we are as Nigerians — emergencies bring out the humanity in us. We naturally want to help disaster victims, even though miscreants will be busy trying to steal any valuables they can find at the scene. That is not too strange in a society with sharp divides in quality of life, where poverty has damaged the brains of millions. And for those who genuinely want to help, the constraint is usually that hospitals may turn down the victims, either for fear of police trouble or because of who will pay the bills if the victims die. These are real challenges.

But my point here is that even for those who want to help, how much understanding do they have about first aid for victims? This, I think, is an important training citizens need to receive. I need the training myself. It could help save someone’s life someday. Before the arrival of emergency services, citizens should be able to provide some basic, appropriate support to accident victims. This may not apply in the Joshua situation since it appeared his friends died instantly. But it could help in other situations that are bound to occur at other times. We must begin to consider first aid treatment training for individuals, specially those who are likely to encounter emergencies in their line of duty.

On federal highways, the first responders are supposed to be the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). I am not too sure how quickly they got to the scene since they are often on patrol. I also don’t know how well equipped their ambulances and personnel are to handle situations of this nature. However, the video I saw showed Joshua at the back of a patrol vehicle and there was so much delay in ferrying him to a hospital for treatment. Anything could have happened. The FRSC later issued a statement saying they responded promptly. In any case, were they alerted on time? Do citizens even have or know how to use the hotlines for emergencies? That is another challenge we must address.

When President Ibrahim Babangida set up the FRSC in 1988 under the leadership of Prof Wole Soyinka, it started out very well, particularly in speed management. I recall that they used to have hand-held speed radars and regularly arrested motorists for speeding. I am not aware if they still use radars. It is time for the federal and state governments to enforce speed controls. My theory has always been that most fatal accidents are caused by speeding — which makes it difficult to brake effectively when facing danger. If speed is modest, most accidents will not result in loss of lives, in my opinion. We must modernise and engage with technology in this age and time. We are far behind.

We must also talk about these trailers. In this particular incident though, it is not established that the trailer was at fault. It was parked by the road side. I doubt we have hard shoulders on the highways where faulty vehicles are parked for safety, and I do not know yet if this trailer broke down or not. I do not know how long it had been parked there. But, generally, I have serious problems with drivers of heavy-duty vehicles in Nigeria. They need a total re-orientation on driving and parking. They often drive on the wrong lane, abandon their trucks in the middle of the road in the event of breakdowns, and often bully other motorists because of the size advantage. This requires regulatory attention.

While I was thankful that Joshua survived the crash, I was overwhelmed with sadness on learning that his friends died. From what I heard, they were sitting on the right side of the car while Joshua was on the left, behind the driver. That was what saved him. While Joshua himself would be grateful that he is alive, he may nurture the trauma for a while. Seeing your closest friends and associates crushed to death is a traumatic picture that can haunt anyone for life. Joshua may be struck by the survivor’s guilt — that intense distress from surviving a horrific event where others died, making one feel undeserving of life. Survivor’s guilt can come with depression, anxiety, flashbacks, anger, etc.

It is also sad that this would happen to a guy like Joshua, who — though British — is very proud of his Nigerian heritage and celebrates Nigeria around the world. He is like our ambassador. He never says anything bad about Nigeria under the guise of “speaking the truth”. He visits the country quite regularly without any incidents. If not for the crash, nobody would have known he was in the country, except those in his circle. For such a decent and loveable chap to experience this tragedy on a visit to his beloved roots is so heartbreaking. And the naysayers are having a ball. We can only hope that this tragedy will not discourage other global icons with Nigerian roots from visiting home.

I extend my condolences to the families of the dead. May they be comforted in this hour of sorrow and pain. May Joshua heal physically and mentally and find a way of immortalising his departed mates. It is not going to be easy, but he must now face life with all the courage left in him. I also want to celebrate the people who came to the aid of the victims and extracted them from the wreckage. We judge Nigerians as bad based on the behaviour of a few, but we see the good side from time to time. Finally, I appeal to the government at all levels to make response to accidents and emergencies a core focus of governance. Efforts should be invested in improving speed and quality of response.

Culled from TheCable