Pains From The Anthony Joshua Road Crash

The news of Anthony Joshua getting involved in a crash at Makun, along the Lagos – Ibadan express way, near the Sagamu interchange hit like pain from an old sore! Like a wound one thought was healed only to accidentally smash it against a pole to the experience of a deep excruciating and searing pain.

Surely, only God must know the exact number of Nigerians whose lives have been cut short by accidents, unsung and unheard of, on Nigerian roads, due to needless, avoidable anomalies like collisions with packed stationary trucks. If Anthony Joshua is not a world renowned boxing champion, this particular crash would probably not have made the news, like in countless other cases where other less well known lives, have been lost.

Fatalities on roads due to incidences involving trucks goes beyond hapless individuals running into stationary trucks, at unnecessarily high speeds.  At Soka area, Ibadan, Oyo State, as recently as October 2025, an articulated truck cab lost connection with the load it was pulling, and the latter unguided and uncontrolled, kept going, crushing cars and humans, resulting in many fatalities. No ridiculous speed was reported and the driver’s driving license was never mentioned to be an issue. In other cases, cargo containers on trucks have been known to upturn in traffic, crushing nearby vehicles, occupants and all. Truck drivers have been known to fall asleep at the steering wheel with their truck ending up in ditches or worse still causing innocent bystanders unnecessary avoidable grief.

The number of trucks on Nigerian roads are simply too many. Many goods and services that are freighted by train in more civilized climes are still being distributed by trucks in Nigeria. If proper figures are available, it is certain that statistics will confirm that fatal accidents on Nigerian roads will be greatly reduced if the number of trucks on the roads are reduced.

SNE hereby advocates an accelerated development of the Nigerian rail system, particularly freight trains, to greatly reduce dependence on trucks and thereby reduce their numbers on the roads and the resultant accidents and fatalities they cause.

It is also important to note that the men of the Road Safety Corps should be more proactive in preventing accidents on Nigerian roads. If that truck had been located on time and towed away to safekeeping, Anthony Joshua and company would not have had the misfortune of running into it. If trucks carrying cargo containers are mandated to chain down the containers, many lives would have been saved, if truck drivers are routinely flagged down for sobriety tests and sleepiness testing, less trucks will end up in ditches.

Finally, sincere condolences to the duo who reportedly lost their lives in the Anthony Joshua crash, while advising him to carefully choose his driver when he has to be on roads in his fatherland, knowing that on Nigerian roads, trucks are given many more liberties than they are given on roads where he is visiting from.