By Josephine Sesay

Between June and August this year, Sierra Leone has witnessed an alarming surge in fatal trailer accidents. The rising frequency, deadly impact, and widespread devastation are no longer isolated tragedies they now constitute a national public safety emergency.

Week after week, citizens are confronted with graphic scenes: crushed vehicles, overturned trailers, charred bodies, and grieving families. These are not random incidents. A disturbing pattern is emerging and it demands immediate, decisive action.

Let’s confront the reality. Many trailer drivers are either under the influence of drugs, fatigued, or recklessly untrained. Anyone who travels our highways can testify to it: speeding trailers weaving through traffic, dangerous overtaking, and drivers visibly exhausted behind the wheel. What else explains the repeated brake failures, head-on collisions, and uncontrollable swerves,

Something is fundamentally broken in the system. These trucks are often overloaded, poorly maintained, and operated by individuals with little to no accountability. It is no surprise that they have become death traps. Yet authorities continue to treat this like a routine inconvenience, rather than the public health crisis that it is.

There’s a growing argument and it is a valid one  that trailers should be banned from moving during daytime hours, especially when schoolchildren, public buses, and thousands of commuters are on the roads. In many other countries, nighttime travel restrictions or designated freight lanes have been successfully implemented. Why not here?

Why must we keep sacrificing lives on the altar of regulatory failure and government inaction?

Where is the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)? Where is the Ministry of Transport? Where are the enforcement agencies responsible for ensuring road safety? Why are there no mandatory drug tests, routine vehicle checks, and stricter licensing standards for trailer operators?

We cannot continue to bury loved ones while officials look the other way. The government must immediately implement the following:

Strict enforcement of trailer regulations and roadworthiness checks Mandatory and frequent drug testing and health assessments for drivers

Restrict heavy-duty vehicle movement during peak hours Designate specific freight routes or lanes to reduce risk to civilian traffic

Sanction logistics companies that overwork, underpay, or under-train drivers Launch a nationwide public awareness campaign on highway safety

This is not just a transportation issue it’s

a matter of life and death. A failure to act now is a failure to protect the citizens of this nation.

We demand reform. We demand accountability. We demand respect for human life. Enough is enough. The bloodshed on our roads must stop and it must stop now.

Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Monday,8th August 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)