Speed breakers (or speed bump) are the common name for a family of traffic calming devices that use vertical deflection to slow motor vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. A speed breaker is a bump in a roadway with heights typically ranging between 3 and 4 inches (7.6 and 10.2cm).

The speed breakers that are installed in residential and congested neighborhoods and communities ensure that a driver reduces speed and thus allow for pedestrians to move about with greater ease.

However, road users who ply the Bomadi/Ohoror road are not happy as they complain of the “unnecessary speed breakers on the road” which has resulted in several robbery attacks on vehicles and road users. 

A commercial driver, Mr. Onoriode Lucky, whose vehicle plies Bomadi – Ughelli, said that “everyone is suffering because of this illegal speed breakers on the road. Cars are getting damaged as a result of the high and numerous speed breakers.”

Some residents of Kpakiama who spoke to GbaramatuVoice, said that “these unauthorized and illegal speed breakers are being built by residents and the government is not doing anything about it.”

A commercial motorcycle rider, who identified himself as Timi, said that “most residents in the Kpakiama and Odorubu towns build a speed breaker just because of what they are selling; a woman who sells fried akara, yam and fish will just wake up one day and build a speed breaker.”

He added that “before doing it, they get permission from the youths of that area who give them the go ahead after getting some token from them.”

Some passengers also said that the road has become a night mare to pregnant women because of the high speed breakers.

A passenger, an elderly man, complained that “if not that what am going to do at Ughelli is important, I wouldn’t have plied the road. After coming back from the journey, I feel pain all over my body.”

He stated further that the speed breakers are “cars and body breakers” and that the government should come and take immediate action as people are suffering.

“People wake up and build speed breaker on government roads and nothing is done about it.”

Some residents of Bomadi also complained that, they can’t get to the hospital immediately when health emergencies arise because of the numerous speed breakers in the town.

“Though the speed breakers make some okada riders to slow down but the reckless ones don’t slow down when they approach a speed breaker which may cause more pain to the passenger.

“Therefore, these speed breakers should be checked, and people should pass through legal authorities before building a speed breaker, else they should be sanctioned,” an aggrieved resident lamented. 

Mr. Eric, another resident, pointed out that “the need to repair the roads and the need to install streetlights are the most crucial and not speed breakers”.

By Gertrude Boatman

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