Whenever a tragic road accident occurs, attention quickly turns to familiar explanations.
Authorities blame speeding, passengers accuse drivers of recklessness, Others point to bad roads, poor vehicle maintenance, or dangerous overtaking.
Yet one factor is rarely discussed with the seriousness it deserves: driver fatigue.
Across Nigeria, thousands of commercial drivers spend long hours behind the wheel every day.
Many leave motor parks before sunrise and continue driving until late at night. Some travel hundreds of kilometres with little rest, moving passengers and goods across states in an effort to maximize earnings.
For many drivers, stopping to rest is viewed as lost income.
The reality is that fatigue can be just as dangerous as alcohol impairment. A tired driver may have slower reaction times, reduced concentration, poor decision making, and impaired judgment. In extreme cases, drivers can experience what experts call “microsleep” episodes, brief periods lasting only a few seconds during which the brain effectively falls asleep.
At highway speeds, those few seconds can be fatal.
Imagine a commercial bus travelling at 100 kilometres per hour. If the driver closes his eyes for just four seconds due to exhaustion, the vehicle could travel more than 100 metres without anyone in control. During that distance, the bus could drift into another lane, collide with an oncoming vehicle, hit a stationary object, or plunge into a ditch.
Unlike speeding or dangerous overtaking, fatigue often leaves no obvious evidence after a crash. Investigators can identify damaged brakes or tire failures.
They can measure skid marks. They can determine vehicle speed. But proving that a driver was physically exhausted before a collision is much more difficult.
This means fatigue may be contributing to many crashes without ever being officially recorded as a cause.
Economic pressures also play a significant role. Rising fuel costs, increasing living expenses, vehicle maintenance costs, and family responsibilities force many drivers to spend longer hours on the road. Some drivers sleep in their vehicles. Others get only a few hours of rest before beginning another journey.
The pressure to make enough money can push drivers beyond their physical limits.
Transport operators and fleet owners also have a responsibility. In many cases, little attention is paid to work-rest schedules, maximum driving hours, or fatigue management programmes. The focus is often on completing trips and generating revenue rather than ensuring drivers are adequately rested.
Countries with stronger road safety systems recognize fatigue as a major occupational hazard. Commercial drivers are often subject to regulated driving hours, mandatory rest breaks, and monitoring systems designed to prevent exhaustion behind the wheel.
Nigeria can benefit from adopting similar measures.
Road safety discussions should move beyond blaming drivers after accidents occur. Greater attention must be given to the conditions under which they work. A driver who has spent 15 hours on the road may not be reckless. He may simply be exhausted.
Until fatigue is treated as a serious road safety issue, many preventable crashes may continue to occur, not because drivers are careless, but because they are tired.
The next time a major accident happens on a Nigerian highway, perhaps one of the first questions should not be how fast the driver was travelling, but how long he had been awake.
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