‎From Rhoda Godwin, Yenagoa

‎

‎Sunday evening should have been like every other evening around the bustling gate of Imo State University in Owerri. Students walked in groups, roadside traders attended to customers, and commuters hurried to their destinations. For 19-year-old Chibuike Friday, it was supposed to be another ordinary walk across the road.

‎Instead, it became his last.

‎In a split second, a speeding vehicle, allegedly involved in an illegal street race, tore through the area, striking the young student with devastating force. By the time he was rushed to the hospital, the hopes, dreams, and future of a teenager from Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State had come to a heartbreaking end.

‎Another victim, Bright Ukwuoma, survived with injuries, and is currently receiving treatment. The driver, identified by police as 30-year-old Dike Chibuike Micheal, was rescued from an angry crowd and taken into custody.

‎But beyond the arrest lies a painful question that echoes after every similar tragedy in Nigeria: Why do innocent people keep dying because of reckless speeding?

Every speeding driver believes that they are in control—until they are not.

‎The difference between arriving a few minutes earlier and arriving safely is often measured by a single decision: slowing down.

‎For Chibuike’s family, that decision was never theirs to make. Somewhere in Ebonyi State, parents who sent their son to school, with dreams of graduation, now face the unimaginable task of planning his burial, instead of celebrating his future.

‎His classmates have lost a friend. Lecturers have lost a student. A community has lost one of its promising young people.

‎Nothing can replace that loss.

‎Across Nigeria, excessive speed continues to rank among the leading causes of fatal road crashes. Roads near schools and universities are particularly dangerous because students cross constantly, often assuming approaching drivers will slow down.

‎When motorists ignore speed limits, every pedestrian becomes vulnerable.

‎Illegal street racing makes that danger even worse. Public roads are not racetracks. Every reckless acceleration turns unsuspecting pedestrians into potential victims.

‎The tragedy outside Imo State University is another reminder that road crashes are rarely ‘accidents.’ Most are preventable.

‎They happen because someone ignored speed limits. Someone believed they could control excessive speed.

Someone made a reckless decision.

‎And someone else paid with their life.

‎The Imo State Police Command has assured the public that investigations will continue, and that anyone found culpable will face prosecution. Justice is important, but justice cannot bring back a young man whose life ended before it truly began.

‎As Nigerians mourn another avoidable death, this tragedy should serve as a wake-up call to every driver. Slow down.

No appointment is worth a human life.

‎No thrill is worth a grieving family.

‎No race is worth burying a 19-year-old whose only mistake was attempting to cross the road.

‎Behind every road fatality is a name, a family, and dreams that will never be fulfilled.

‎May Chibuike’s death not become just another statistic in Nigeria’s road safety records, but a lasting reminder that speed kills—and that every driver holds someone else’s life in their hands every time they get behind the wheel.