Femi Joseph Launches "Save Life & Soul Foundation" To Rescue Accident Victims.
By Charles Segun Adegbite
For nearly 40years Mr Moses Olufemi Joseph has been involved in the business of safety on the roads and rescuing accident victims. Starting from when he joined the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, as a pioneering member in 1988, to the time he took part in the formation of Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, TRACE, in mid-2000s.
While sharing his life experience in the field of road safety and traffic management operations, Mr Joseph who is the President/Founder of Save Life & Soul Foundation, told Successful People Magazine that he has seen a lot of accident victims with obvious chance of surviving, who they rescued to government hospitals , but were abandoned by medical personnel for hours until they died.
"Sometimes, I got disturbed and unable to sleep whenever I got home as an officer of the Road Safety and TRACE. When you see accident victims who could survive but was allowed to die by people whose life career is to safe life from dying." He said, lamenting.
The Untenable Excuses For Life Wastage
According to him, various excuses were often given by those medical personnel as reasons they won't give the victims that urgently needed medical attention and treatments.These ranges from:
#1 Demand for financial deposit before they can attend to the accident victims.
#2 Doctors are on strike.
#3 Carelessness of the medical personnel.
Lamenting over the agonies accident victims are subjected to, even in their traumatic situation when they need encouragement and pampering, Joseph said interrogatively:
"How can you be expecting someone who is already unconscious and needed emergency treatment to become conscious, or an agonising accident victim who is bleeding or facing traumatic experience, who doesn't know where he or she is, and have probably lost her phone and belongings in the vehicle, who only escaped death by the whisker to be paying deposit before they could be attended to?.
"Or how do you expect other road users who out of sympathy, abandoned their own journey and engaged in a rescue operations to bring the victims to hospital because FRSC members were not around, to come and be paying deposit for people they don't even know from Adam?" He asked.
The most painful of all those ugly and horrendous incidents was the death of his younger sister about 12years ago. She was involved in a road crash and rescued to a hospital. At that time she had obvious chance of surviving. But she was left unattended to for about eight hours, until she gave up the ghost.
The Birth Of Save Life & Soul Foundation
The unpalatable experience of his sister's death led to his determination to form a non governmental organization that will be engaging in rescue operations of saving accident victims from dying.
So, in 2024 he registered the Save Life And Soul Foundation as an NGO with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The Mission
Mr Joseph said, it's to rescue accident victims from the scene of accident, take them to hospitals where they could be given emergency treatment. Help those who could easily be identified connect their family members or those who could take responsibility of bearing the burden of paying the bills. And to help those who can't easily be identified pay the bill and get treatments.
Genesis of the Foundation
According to him, the need to establish this foundation started about 12 years ago.
"This is an idea that came up when I had the misfortune of losing my younger sister to an avoidable accident.
"She had an accident. And she was brought to the hospital. She was there for over eight hours unattended to. And she eventually gave up the ghost.
"From that moment I felt there was every need for government to put some things in place, for hospital officers to know that they have big issues on their hands , especially where accident victims are concerned." He added.
However, the financial requirements needed to embark on the mission, were not available to put in place the necessary logistics. In spite of that he has been embarking on all the underground work needed since then.
Focus of the Foundation
It is to support accident victims, until they recover or their people show interest, especially those immediately identifiable because accident doesn't have geographical location.
"Our focus is on those accident victims who can not easily be identified. Because these are the category of people who are often neglected and left untreated until they die.
The Principal AIM Of The Foundation
Speaking on the main reason for inaugurating the NGO, Mr. Joseph said:
"I have one aim for setting up the foundation. And that is, NO ACCIDENT VICTIM IS LEFT UNTREATED."
The Procedure
"We would establish a unit in the hospital in which the moment an accident is brought, they will just take over by paying the bills and get involved." He said further.
This, according to him, will get rid of the idea of using "failure to register and make initial deposit" as an excuse to abandon people who are in trauma.
Justice For Accident Victims
The Save Life & Soul Foundation president also disclosed the intention of the NGO to get justice for accident victims from the insurance companies and all parties responsible for the accident to take responsibilities for their actions.
According to Mr Joseph, "I have discovered from many years of experience that most of the vehicles plying our roads have insurance. But the insurance companies hardly pay or take responsibility for the victims of the vehicles that had accident.
They can buy new vehicles or repair vehicles for the owners who insured their vehicles, but the people who became victims of such accident are often neglected and never attended to."
"They can buy new vehicles or repair vehicles for the owners who insured their vehicles, but the people who became victims of such accident are often neglected and never attended to." He explained.
Legal Approach To Success
He noted that they will help accident victims take legal action against insurance companies and drivers who are not willing to pay bills for the treatment of victims of such accident, to get justice for them.
He noted that compensating accident victims is one of the major reasons for engaging in insurance policy between drivers and the insurance companies.
He noted that if drivers begin to engage in the process of compensating their accident victims they will be more responsible when driving.
He disclosed that some drivers are fond of getting fake insurance certificates, which he described as "Police, Let Me Pass" kind of insurance certificate. But by the time they're being taken up for legal action, they will see reasons to be serious with their vocation and stop playing with human lives.
Essentially of Public Enlightenment
He noted that since they (NGO team) are going to be working with drivers and the public, there would be regular public enlightenment programs on radio, television and other media, especially online ones: Both to educate the drivers and general public on their activities and also enlighten them on how to engage in rescue mission whenever they run into an accident scene.
Mode of Operations
This man with the "Mission To Save Life", said they have the goal of operating across the country, but they are starting with the Phase One of their Operation Strategy which is operating within Remo in Ogun State, as a pilot.
He told Successful People Magazine that they're starting with government hospitals now. As they get fully established with that they will then collaborate with ideal and well equipped private hospitals.
Appeal For Public Support
He made it known that the project can't be run in isolation because it's a big project and it is capital intensive. However they have started having meetings with top officials of agencies involved in traffic management like TRACE, FRSC, NSCDC, NURTW, RTEAN and others.
"What we are doing is appealing to good Nigerians to support us in this course, because we realized that government alone can't do it and succeed.
"So, we are appealing for financial support from well meaning Nigerians to continue with this laudable project. But we're not waiting until we get support before starting.
"We have discovered that accident happens everyday across the country and a lot of lives of beloved ones are lost. That's the reason we can't fold our hands and pretend as if it doesn't concern us, because nobody knows who can become victims of road accident.
"As I have said before, road accident has no geographical location. And nobody knows who could become a victim. That's the reason we need financial support to embark on this project.
"We need money to do regular public enlightenment to educate our motorists and all road users on the need for traffic rules compliance and to rescue and treat victims fast." He added.
Message To The Government
While he appreciated the fact that government alone can not do this thing he said, "There are certain things the government should take very serious. That's human life.
"And concerning those who work in our government hospitals, some of them appear to be either wicked or mean when you see the way they attend to patients, as if they're not human beings themselves.
"It's a circumstantial thing that someone becomes an accident victim. And once anyone is involved in it, it's the responsibility of everyone who is not a victim yet to rally round the person (s) and rescue them.
"It's a circumstantial thing that someone becomes an accident victim. And once anyone is involved in it, it's the responsibility of everyone who is not a victim yet to rally round the person (s) and rescue them.
"Another crucial thing is that, accident is a traumatic experience. For you now to be abandoned in that situation is like accelerating the death process instead of stoping it" he explained further.
He expressed his displeasure over how they make victims to pay money that are not necessary by asking the accident victim to run tests that are not needed, just to take advantage of that emergency situation to make money from the vulnerable patient.
Ugly Experience From The Hospital
He disclosed that he has gotten personal experience as an accident victim before and saw the way the medical personnel were behaving as if they didn't have human feelings.
Appeal To Govt
"That's the reason I decided to handle that aspect of rescuing accident victims myself. I therefore appeal to the government to do training and retraining of the medical staff to let it be regularly empassized to them that they are only privileged to be in that position." He said.
He also urged government to make available all the necessary facilities that would be used during emergency situation, for the medical personnel to work well.
Joseph then appealed to government to also stop the privatisation and commercialisation of the area that ought to be made free and accessible to the public.
Message To The Insurance Companies
To the insurance companies he told them to protect their corporate integrity by keeping their promises through paying compensation to the victims of road accident. He urged insurance practitioners to be humane and stop denying road accident victims the good treatment they deserve whenever the unexpected happens.
Final Word To The Motorists
He then delivered his final words to the motorists and other road users by quoting Prof Wole Soyinka's statement, that the Road is very patient, but it does not forgive. "You can do whatever manoeuvering you like on the road, it will be patient with you. But the moment you make any mistake on the road it will punish you appropriately." He said empathqically.
He then appealed to the motorists to always obey traffic rules and regulations . He also urged them not to drink alcohol whenever they're about to drive, to observe speed limit instead of accelerating beyond the normal speed; and to not be carrying passengers or loads beyond the required capacity of the vehicle.
He then advised them to always bear it in mind that they are not the only ones in the vehicle, and so drive with care.
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