COCORIOKO EDITORIAL
Our nation’s heart has been wrenched once again into deep mourning following Friday night’s monumental disaster at Wellington , Freetown, when a huge tanker truck carrying jet fuel exploded and killed over a hundred people .
The massive fire event sent another hundred more into hospitals with severe burns, after an articulated truck hit the tanker and it started spilling raw jet fuel into the highway.
As a newspaper, we want to extend our deepest condolence to the families of all who perished in the disaster. May God comfort their hearts. We also wish all the injured a speedy recovery.
Usually, when a disaster of this measure strikes, it is not a time for casting blames but the truth must always be said. This disaster should have been avoided. This one thing is needful even while we are overwhelmed by grief and mourning.
First of all, given that jet fuel is more corrosive, inflammable and combustible than regular fuel, it was always a wrong and reckless decision to transport it when human and vehicular traffic are high . Our authorities should have established regulations long ago to ensure that such movement of highly inflammable material like jet fuel was done only after midnight when people and vehicles are off the streets. It is a pity that everyday, we see hazardous materials being transported in Sierra Leone by trucks that are in fact not Road worthy at all, at the most inappropriate time when human and vehicular traffic are at their highest peak. It is always a frightful sight to see these trucks, with containers barely perched on top of carriers , negotiating their way through heavy traffic and competing with other vehicles and pedestrians , thereby endangering lives and property.
Secondly, where there is a fast and efficient public safety system in place, such an accident involving a fuel tanker should have been handled much better, by cordoning off the scene and forbidding the public from accessing it. But over 60 years after Independence, Sierra Leone still does not have any system in place to protect the public speedily in the event of a disaster. The Police are always not available when and where they are most needed . They are understaffed and lack logistics . We spend millions of dollars on other unnecessary projects but make no effort to build and equip a better and more efficient Police force. As for the Fire Force, the least said, the better.
Also, it was stunning to see members of the public rushing to the leaking tanker with containers to scoop free petrol. Stunning because Sierra Leoneans, must by now have learnt that almost always, after a fuel tanker gets into an accident and fuel is leaking into the highway, it has always been followed by a massive explosion that results in horrendous deaths and injuries. It happened in many parts of Africa and whenever it did, it was widely publicized by newspapers , magazines and the TV. Does it mean that Sierra Leoneans still do not know that bailing petrol from a leaking tanker is very risky and has led to disasters in other countries ?
Public education is very poor in Sierra Leone. It is high time that the government put a mass public education system in place to teach citizens about safety .
Some people have blamed the disaster on the effect of poverty —-Our citizens are so impoverished that they see disaster scenes as God-sent opportunities to find means of making that quick buck that will alleviate their want. It is not a surprise that even during regular accidents, many people rush there not to save victims but to steal their monies and belongings.
Due to massive poverty and the every day hassle to barely survive in impoverished countries like Sierra Leone , the public, especially unemployed and unengaged youths are ungovernable and under no control whatsoever. They see every event, hazardous or not, as an opportunity to plunder something for their own advantage. This should not have been the case. Public Education should have reorientated the minds of our people. But the reality is , where poverty is very deep and predominant , all people think about is survival . Safety- consciousness is never a priority.
The response of the Sierra Leone Disaster Management Agency has also come under scrutiny, but again all boils down to lack of adequate funding and unavailability of logistics to make it a swift and efficient organism.
As we continue to mourn and pray for the speedy recovery of the burnt victims presently recovering in hospitals across the city, let us rededicate ourselves to ensuring the highest level of public safety and nipping in the bud colossal disasters of this nature that are avoidable.
KABS KANU
