A couple of years ago, Ghana was considered as one of the worst accident-prone countries in Africa. This is as a result of careless driving and the lack of enforcement of motor traffic laws and regulations in the country. The carnage on our roads is getting more and more alarming with reports coming each passing day of loss of lives through motor accidents in one or the other part of the country.
The regularity with which these self-inflicted accidents have been occurring on our roads of late should be a concern for all Ghanaians.
The latest of such horrible accidents occurred in the Brong Ahafo and Central Regions last week in which about 19 people lost their lives with many more sustaining various degrees of injuries.
Among the dead were four young final-year students of the Tanoso Community Health Training School in the Brong Ahafo Region. Even before this shocking news could ease, there was a report of another accident involving an articulated truck and sixteen other vehicles at Nima in Accra.
Many efforts have been made and continue to be made to ensure discipline on our roads but it seems the more efforts are made, the worst the situation becomes.
Most, if not all the accidents on our roads, have been attributed mainly to gross indiscipline by drivers. This is evident in the way in which vehicles parked at unauthorized places, drunk-driving, over-speeding wrongful overtaking, making and receiving phone calls while driving, driving at the shoulders of the road, over-loading, fatigue-driving, non-observance of traffic rules and regulations, and poor maintenance of vehicles.
We would like to remind Ghanaians that passengers have the right under the Road Regulations Act 683 of 2004, to cause the arrest or report any driver who displays recklessness and other forms of indiscipline behavior on the road to the authorities.
The Catholic Standard is making a passionate appeal to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service to be more vigilant on our roads instead of pretending to be inspecting documents, especially road worthy certificates, only for some of them to take a few Ghana Cedis from drivers and allow them to drive away even when they find some of the vehicles unworthy to ply our roads.
The Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), should also ensure that commercial drivers have the requisite experience before they are issued with licenses and their vehicles found to be road worthy before certificates are issued.
Dear Law Enforcement Agencies, ask yourself whether taking a few Cedis from recalcitrant drivers is worth the life of a human being? Will you be happy if your wife, your child or friend was to be among those who die on our roads as a result of your greed and negligence?
If the answers to these two questions are NO, then take a second look at yourself and make sure that you enforce the road regulations without fear or favor. Ensure that all broken-down vehicles are towed away immediately to avoid further deaths on our roads.
We plead with the Ministry of Roads and Highways and its related Agencies to at least fill the potholes on our major roads. This should be a regular feature and not only done after an accident has occurred.
The National Road Safety Commission should also back-up to intensify education of Drivers and Pedestrians on road safety.
It is quite disturbing the rate at which the country’s human resource continues to be lost through road accidents.
Let us all raise our voices and fight the indiscipline on our roads.
