How much is your life worth?

Filomena Oliveira

Filomena Oliveira dedicated the last 30 years of her life working for the heavy automotive industry, not only in Africa, but also in Europe and Latin America. She studied and applied her knowledge in vehicle and component manufacturers, transporters, after-sales and maintenance companies. She touched the lives and helped the business of more than 10,000 entrepreneurs in the sector. In Angola, many say that trucking has two seasons: one before and one after her company started working, 20 years ago.

As an entrepreneur in the transport sector and as a citizen, I understand that I must make my contribution to the appeal that the Vice-President of the Republic of Angola launched on the 20th of November. I follow your wise words of appeal to join forces. Keeping silent is being complicit.

I salute with strong applause the transport companies, heroes of this country, who, in crisis after crisis, continue to take care of their fleets. Those who care love, those who care protect, those who care are responsible. However, those who take care, carrying out maintenance responsibly have to compete on price with others who do not take care. It's unfair, it discourages those who want to do well.

Everyone has a role: police, state and citizens.

Here is my appeal to anyone who hires transport: if the vehicle is not safe, refuse. Pay something more, but make the choice to help those who do what is right. Those who choose only based on price are feeding those who circulate without complying and the next victim could be someone they love.

If the transport has bald tires, incorrect tire pressure, carries a container without locking the safety locks, has the yellow hose disconnected, has looseness in the pivot or in the 5th wheel, does not have the cushioning rubbers... and so many others "without"... each and every one of these lacks only one thing: a sense of responsibility.

For anyone who may read this who is not from the area, I explain: bald tires or those with the wrong pressure, they heat up much more, they burst while driving and project screens. They are circulating pumps.

A container with its locks open can fall on a curve, move when braking, become unbalanced and cause you to lose control of the vehicle.

Yellow hose disconnected, trailer drives without brakes. When braking, as only the tractor head has brakes, due to inertia, it will rotate sideways, sweeping everything around it, it is an uncontrolled missile.

The pivot/5th wheel connection is the point where the tractor couples the semi-trailer. A failure in this connection causes the semi-trailer to fall, become uncoupled, overturn, destroy itself and certainly destroy everything in its path.

When we come across a semi-trailer that shakes our car like an earthquake and whose sound is like thunder, the same vibration we feel is transmitted to the road. These vehicles are road-destroying jackhammers. Many talk about the poor quality of road construction, but I think it is also necessary to talk about how certain vehicles destroy roads much more than others.

All of these points can be seen with the naked eye, they do not require any equipment or technical skills. And any one of these can claim a life.

Let's all join hands and make our roads safer. Doing the right thing is never wrong.