My Neighborhood Watch #100- Reporting Events Around us
PAINFUL TRAGEDY IN ABA: STRONG WIND BLOWS DOWN A LARGE AND TALL BILLBOARD, KILLS MANY PEOPLE AND DESTROY VEHICLES
Sometimes, one may begin to imagine and question the way people die in these days. This happens such that no one could seem to be safe not even in your own house. Some death now occurs at any time, anywhere and unnoticed.
Being most careful is important but unfortunately, the way the wind of death blows tends to defy careful measures or standards we take to avoid death.
I am sadly reporting a very unfortunate and sad loss of lives and vehicles in the city of Aba, Abia state. This unfortunate incident occurred yesterday along the popular Aba-owerri road that is beside the salad market.
The large and tall billboard positioned along the Aba-owerri road collapsed when the cloudy weather was about to discharge the rains. Prior to the start of the rains, strong winds blew all around making devastating hits to buildings and other structures. In the course of the wind blowing, it rooted out the base of the billboard fell from the ground falling to hit down moving vehicles carrying people to their different locations.
The billboard was not showing any signs of defects around around it. This made it a surprising event that leaves many people to be more curious to ask questions. It has been there for good number of years and this would be the first record arising from a fall of billboard that deaths and injuries to several people.
People gathered around the place, taking out the corpses of their known and unknown persons to the morgue. Other victims were injured and quickly rushed to the hospital to receive treatment. The victims that survived sustained high degrees of injuries which may render their legs, arms, chest and other parts of their body useless.
As at the time of making my report, the number of deaths and those that sustained various degrees of injuries have not been concluded.
Cranes and other heavy duty equipments have been sent to the scene to remove the billboard from the road and to enable people carry their dead and injured ones. People are also making contacts to know if their loved ones or relatives are involved in the incident.
As this unfortunate incident has happened, what then should be done to prevent future occurrence? I come up with few suggestions as:
Stop the siting of such kind of large billboards along or closer to the road
Continous check up and maintenance on the on sited billboards to ascertain loosening parts as they are made of irons.
Siting of billboards should not be done carelessly. Advert billboards should be regulated by appropriate authorities that would run run a continous check on it to check out for defects.
With tears in my eyes, I invite the following to participate in this competition: