Increasing Number Of Road Traffic Accidents

NEWS COMMENTARY ON THE INCREASING NUMBER OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THE COUNTRY

Friday, the 22nd of March this year will go into the record books of Ghana as one of the saddest and gloomy Days. Over 65 souls perished through a road accident, which occurred on the Techiman-Kintampo highway in the early hours of that fateful Friday. A year ago, similar accident involving a speeding Toyota Corolla occurred at the same place in which nine people lost their lives. In all these, words of sympathy and condemnation have been issued by well-meaning Ghanaians. It is needless to state that road crashes are becoming increasingly alarming and scary. Travelling on the roads in the country has become more hazardous than ever. Road accidents in the country continue to increase rather than declining. According to statistics, the country sadly recorded 2,341 people killed in 2018 in road accidents, 795 of whom were pedestrians. In Ghana, there are a number of factors, that contribute to road accidents. The commonly known factors are human error, the state of the road and the state of the vehicles.

Ironically majority of road accidents occur on the so-called good roads, mostly through head-on collision. This can be minimised if the roads were dual carriage lanes. Dual carriage roads are much safer than what we have in most parts of the country. Over speeding is another major cause of the crashes. Generally, it could be best described as indiscipline. Drivers blatantly disregard driving rules and speed limits and engage in reckless activities on the roads. A recent joint Police and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority exercise to help reduce the carnage on the roads revealed that a lot of people driving in the country have little or no knowledge about driving laws and regulations. The irony is that personnel of the MTTD are always on the roads but one wonders if their presence is indeed changing the attitude of road users. The MTTD officers seem not to be doing what they are supposed to do. Thus to properly and effectively address this, the police, the sole custodians of the laws of the land and the watchmen of the citizenry must be up and doing. It is important to weed out people who decide to drive on the roads but do not want to go by the rules. Education and sensitization programmes have also not been effective. The budgetary support of six-point-five million Ghana Cedis for the National Road Safety Commission, NRSC to help scale up public education, sensitization and training will never achieve the desire results without enforcement of the laws. Enforcement of the driving laws is key in dealing with the menace. If the police are not making any headway, then the NRSC should be transformed into an Authority to enable it to properly enforce the driving laws and regulations to reduce the unnecessary carnage on our roads. It is also time for the country to vigorously pursue an effective transport agenda by ensuring other alternative means of cheaper, faster and safer transport. We cannot continue to make our roads slaughter fields. Let us act now.

BY: NANA SIFA TWUM, MEDIA A COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT – LONDON – UK