How safe is buying canned energy, alcoholic drinks in traffic?

With alcoholic and energy drinks mostly sold in supermarkets, grocery retailers and open markets, recent sale of both branded and unbranded products during traffic jams have raised concerns following rise in the sale of drinks to people driving in traffic gridlocks that build up endlessly in most of Nigeria’s major city beginning with Lagos, West Africa’s largest commercial city.

While alcohol producers, as part of their core business commitment to promote responsible consumption of their products, have initiated numerous responsible drinking initiatives focused on consumers and the general public, BusinessDay findings show that street vendors in Lagos are in the habit of selling chilled alcoholic and energy drinks in traffic hold up especially at motor parks.

The hawkers with transparent buckets or polythene bags filled with assorted drinks, move between vehicles in the traffic towards customers who are in their trucks or cars driving. Their canned goods of alcoholic and energy drinks, neatly arranged in the bag with ice packs placed on top are always competing for customers – motorists, commuters, pedestrians – who usually patronise them.

This is the situation at Mile 2, Apapa, Oshodi, Ikeja, Ojota, Maryland, and Victoria Island among other areas where traffic is usually heavy especially in the evenings. This is contrary to the rule guiding the sales of alcohol and street trading in Lagos.

This practice, BusinessDay observed have continued unchecked for months. As brewers/distillers companies in a bid to ensure successful marketing strategy, create strong portfolio of brands across all segments of their products in cans, an array of energy drinks are now spiced with canned brands of common alcoholic beverages into the hawkers’ polythene bags/buckets, for sale in traffic.

Sani Babalola, a driver that plies Ikeja to Egbeda told BusinessDay that the indiscriminate sale of alcohol is on the rise.

According to Babalola, “The indiscriminate sale of alcoholic drinks in Lagos has become worrisome. Many commuters now find it easy to drink while driving as it is sold to them in the comfort of their cars.”

Babalola explained that drivers constitute the largest number of those who patronise sellers of alcoholic drinks in traffic, motor parks and on highways.

“It is now a habit for most of the drivers to buy these drinks while in traffic jams and drive while drinking. The way out is to draw the attention of relevant government agencies because the moment they curb the practice of prohibiting hawking of alcoholic and energy drinks, it would naturally eliminate the danger posed by the sale of these drinks in traffic.

For Ibrahim Majekodunmi, hawkers mingle among vehicles and sell alcoholic and energy drinks to drivers who are supposed to be concentrating while driving especially in the kind of heavy traffic that characterise Lagos roads.

This has obviously affected safety on the roads. The World Health Organisation reports that the consumption of alcohol, even in relatively small amounts, increases the risk of involvement in a crash for motorists and pedestrians. It estimates that nearly 1.2 million people die, and millions more injured or disabled, every year as a result of road crashes, mostly in low-income and middle-income countries.

This statistics has in no way curbed people’s act of drunk driving and the fact that most regulatory bodies have no way of ascertaining the level of alcohol consumption has also contributed to the  unpleasant situation.

Anne Agbaje