The “buses of death”! With these words, Colonel Momar Guèye summed up the increase in road accidents. In a rant, the former forester recalled a famous maxim very often invoked by his peers whenever it was a question of raising awareness among rural populations about the preservation of nature: “fu daay taak, nit a fa jaar” (there is no bush fire without the presence of man). A Wolof saying which, according to him, can be transposed onto our roads: “Fu nit faatoo ci tali, nit a fa diaar” (Man is responsible for all deaths on the road).
“Common sense is the best shared thing in the world”. In Senegal, this beautiful quote from René Descartes does not seem to make any sense. For several days, a video has been circulating on social networks showing two interurban transport buses, driving side by side and at high speed for several hundred meters. If the image arouses so much indignation, it is because it was posted online, just a few hours after a series of tragedies that occurred between Koungheul, Dinguiraye, Thiadiaye and Dakar, taking away a total of 22 innocent souls.
“Bus-repetita”, one would say. These facts of notorious indiscipline remind us of the young trucker who was quietly enjoying his “mafé” at the wheel of his wide-body truck, in the middle of traffic, or his colleague, filmed sleeping on the highway at TOLL. And the examples are numerous.
According to official figures made public in 2023, around 700 people die in road accidents each year in Senegal, a country of 18 million inhabitants, and 90% of accidents are linked to human behavior. These data are all the more plausible since even the latest measures taken in this direction are struggling to be applied rigorously. A laxity on the part of our authorities which, in addition to the irresponsibility of certain drivers, has caused us to lose loved ones. The tragedies of Sikilo (the death toll has since risen from 41 to 70 deaths), Sakal (19 deaths), Ndioum (14 deaths), among others, are still anchored in collective memory.
We can blame the donkey that crossed the road, the wind or the morning rain, but it must be said and repeated: some drivers play with the lives of the people they pass or carry on board. In our country, many carefree drivers often think that a cigarette, a glass of coffee, tea or another supposedly invigorating beverage can help them overcome sleep and fatigue. This is how, at the wheel of their jaw harps, they face without knowledge or conscience the dangerous constraints which crisscross their journeys.
The other factor, always linked to humans, is the dilapidation of the vehicle fleet. If today the carcasses of vehicles subject to the direction of the wind still drive men, we wonder where the public force is? Everything has therefore changed since the massive arrival of these old, reformed and unwanted buses on European roads and which, despite their state of advanced disrepair, arrive at the Port of Dakar and are used in Senegal for public passenger transport.
The State, also run by humans, failed in its decision-making. June 2017, the then Minister of Land Transport, Mansour Elimane Kane, declared with force of voice and conviction: “In 6 months, the points license will be effective in Senegal”. However, two years earlier, in November 2014, more precisely, this same minister announced with confidence that Senegal was going to switch to the points license from 2015. From the platform of the National Assembly, he indicated, moreover, that “a steering committee was created for the implementation of the points license”.
This famous points-based license will only be introduced in Senegal with the adoption, at the beginning of April 2022, of the draft law establishing the Highway Code. Objective: to “drastically” reduce the number of drivers who drive without respecting the rules and the “too high number of deaths on the roads”, vowed the Minister of Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mansour Faye. But still nothing!
In the meantime, the massacre continues and continues to leave entire families in mourning. And our roads are bathed in human blood almost daily and are littered with the corpses of men, women and livestock without a shepherd.
Welcome to Senegal!
Mass Massamba Ndao
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