By Africa 24

Freetown and many parks in Sierra Leone haven’t no parking lots for vehicles.

This poses a serious concern but government authorities don’t pay heed to this issue as cars, jeeps, vans, trucks are seen parking recklessly on the streets.

In civilized countries not only in Europe but in most African nations, parking spaces are left for vehicles and other motors like bikes and the likes.

You just don’t get to see that happening in Sierra Leone. Everything is a complete opposite in terms of decency and civilization in Sierra Leone.

When parks are not enough or are not at all, it leads to a situation of several accidents happening as footpaths are squeezed out to make way for vehicles and lorries to park.

This is something even road safety authorities have turned a blind eye on for years now. Even if they decide now to tow off the vehicles on our the roads, they will do that a day or week and will forget about it and allow again things to go the wrong way as usual.

Apart from accidents resulting to many deaths and vehicles crashes, parking vehicles recklessly, is also not only a risk to people’s lives but it tells a country that is not decent in looks.

When vehicles are parked where they should be – at parking spaces – whether they are public ones or are private ones it shows how responsible that country is. But in Sierra Leone, roads on the sidewalks are used as parks – something that is intolerable to even our sister nations Guinea Conakry, Ghana and Nigeria, lest to talk of advanced nations like England who colonized us, USA, Australia, China, etc.

Last time when we had privilege to speak to somebody who had just traveled from Conakry he told us this : “In Guinea, you don’t get to see a Keke (tricycle) just stopping by on the sidewalk to pick up a passenger. You get fined for doing that mess,” a man explained his frustration over his experience of seeing a Keke rider parking half way on Mountain Cut bypass road in Freetown.

As we roam about to observe our roads, we took photos of vehicles sandwiched with market sellers at the popular Tombo market in Waterloo, in the Western Area Rural District.

Just few metres walk away by the Government Peninsula Secondary school, there is a cemetery there, and in front of it, you could see  some popa-podas parked on the sidewalk.

If you ask people around why is that so they would tell you it is a normal thing for vehicles like those ones to be parked there by drivers at a sidewalk area that is supposed to be a prohibited parking area.

Who should get to stop this? Who are to advice for more public parks across the country? Who get to fine defulters?