Some recent incidents highlight the urgent need to give immediate attention to issues involving impaired drivers, which are not receiving adequate consideration but always pose a serious threat to the safety of passengers and other road users.

Over the years, government agencies responsible for driver and passenger safety have focused on checking tyres, brake systems, lights, wipers, fire extinguishers, and ensuring the windscreen and mirrors are in good condition. In addition, particularly during the processing of a driver’s licence or its renewal, prospective and actual drivers are tested for vision to ensure they are fit to drive safely.

There is hardly any evidence that consideration is given to situations in which a driver in motion could suddenly suffer a health condition and immediately put the lives of all passengers in great danger. One such condition is a seizure. It happens suddenly and can render the driver unable to control the vehicle, which may then veer off the road and plunge into the bush or a river, depending on the terrain where the incident occurred.

This situation deserves the immediate attention of road safety managers. There is an urgent need for stakeholders, particularly the government, drivers’ unions, and the association of vehicle owners, to act to prevent people who suffer seizures from driving until they have been certified to be free from the health challenge, if it is curable.

Seventeen passengers narrowly escaped death on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos on July 5, 2026, when the driver of a commercial bus they were travelling in suddenly suffered a seizure, causing the vehicle to veer dangerously towards the lagoon. It was reported that, at full speed, the vehicle would have plunged into the river but for a quick-thinking passenger who took control of the steering wheel and safely brought the vehicle to a stop, preventing what could have been a fatal accident.

The Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment at the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Adebayo Taofiq, confirmed the incident. ‘Thank God, it would have been a case of ‘rest in peace.’ I was just going to earn my daily bread when the driver suddenly developed a seizure while driving,’ one of the passengers said. It was a reminder of a similar incident on March 16, 2024, when a commercial bus driver conveying students of the University of Ilorin slumped and died behind the wheel.

In a similar action that saved the students’ lives, one of them quickly grabbed the steering wheel and safely brought the bus to a stop.

According to medical experts, a seizure is a sudden surge of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that temporarily disrupts communication between nerve cells. While it happens, it usually causes some symptoms that range from a blank stare and brief confusion to jerking of the muscles and a complete loss of consciousness by the sufferer. It was learnt that the condition is caused by some transient events and can signal a chronic health disorder such as epilepsy.

Usually, a seizure is triggered by some neurological conditions, including brain tumour, stroke or epilepsy; head trauma caused by serious injuries or concussions; metabolic issues manifesting as abnormally low blood sugar or chemical imbalances in the blood, such as sodium; infections showing high fever, especially in young children; meningitis or encephalitis; and substance abuse, which may include specific medication reactions.

Any situation or condition that can cause the driver to suddenly become unconscious and consequently lose control of a vehicle that is in motion should be seen as a great danger to the safety of not only the passengers of the affected vehicle but also the other road users. There have been cases of vehicles veering off their lanes to collide with other vehicles coming from the opposite direction in the adjacent lanes and causing fatal accidents. This is one of the reasons such situations should be prevented.

Whatever is going to be done in this regard should include strong public enlightenment on seizures as a health condition and how it poses a serious threat to the safety of passengers and other road users. It is good to learn that many seizures provide some early warnings called a prodrome or an aura. According to health professionals, during the prodrome phase of the condition, which occurs hours or days before the attack, the sufferer experiences mood swings in the form of increased irritability, anxiety, or depression.

The aura phase, which is an actual focal seizure that happens just before a larger seizure and lasts seconds or minutes, usually presents sensory changes caused by bad smells, bad tastes, flashing lights, or a racing heartbeat; physical sensations in the form of dizziness, numbness, ‘pins and needles’ feeling; or a rising sensation in the stomach as well as an intense feeling of fear, panic or unexplained joy.

With sufficient knowledge of the causes, nature and symptoms of seizure, the government, in strong collaboration with other stakeholders, particularly drivers’ unions and road transport employers’ associations, should come out with a policy that will prevent people suffering from seizures from putting passengers’ lives in danger.

If it is possible to detect sufferers of the disease by way of a medical test, it should be made part of the checks before a driver’s licence is issued. Because of the close relationship among drivers, it should be possible to easily identify those suffering from the ailment among them and to advise such colleagues to engage in other jobs to prevent putting people’s lives at risk.

All employers of drivers, including government, private individuals, companies and other organisations, should ensure they do not recruit seizure patients as drivers. These measures became necessary since it is difficult for passengers to detect a driver who suffers from seizures and decide whether to board his vehicle.

Generally, road safety deserves greater attention than what we see now. It appears that the money to be made from vehicle owners by the government in their revenue drive has taken precedence over the safety of those who travel on the roads. In some states, including Lagos, officials are visibly more interested in forcing private car owners to comply with the laws, especially in ways that will fetch money for the government, while commercial vehicles are rarely disturbed to do the same.

Certificates of roadworthiness, vehicle licence, insurance certificate and other documents are demanded only from owners of cars that mostly carry only the owner or sometimes several passengers, while over 90 per cent of commercial vehicles that constantly carry between 10 and 50 passengers are not roadworthy and are left to freely operate. It should not be the case. The government has a responsibility to ensure that nobody puts the life of another person in danger, whether intentionally or unintentionally.