HOW WE LOST ANITA
I woke up early morning today to the WhatsApp status of most of my friends about a young professional teacher Anita due for her promotion from Snr. Supt ll to Snr. Supt. l. I didn't need anyone to tell me at least what the matter was with her. The few words and emojis with pictures of a wrecked saloon car was enough to make me know that we again lost some souls to motor traffic accident.
Recent data available points to the fact that, on the average, we loose five people to motor traffic accident daily as a nation. And this is about 1,825 yearly. Motor traffic accidents remain a world wide headache because no nation is spared. This explains why the drastic reduction in motor traffic accidents found it's way into the SDG. (SDG 3.6: the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents to be halved by 2020). Since 2011 when Ghana made the commitment towards this goals, little has been achieved.
The nation of course made several commitments towards the goal such as the creation of the road safety commission, the many road safety regulations and regulators such as the DVLA, with law enforcement agencies empowered to enforce all the regulations. A lot of state resources went into efforts aimed at realizing this goal. It is only unfortunate that, in 2020, the situation has become worse off than when the nation signed up to the intention.
The preceding paragraph is the reason why every Ghanaian should start to question what is wrong, but without any haste, I think we must understand some of the major cases of road carnage on our roads. You might have ever seen the driver of a car making a call while on the driving wheel. There are many vehicles plying our roads on daily basis without the road worthy certification. This implies that such vehicles are mostly death traps. There are other vehicles with road worthy certification and insurance covers, but have other serious problems. One of such problems is the typical Ghanaian driver "knowing for a fact" that "home used" spare parts are better to fit to their vehicles than the brand new spare parts. The indiscipline of drivers is a major cause. And talking about drivers, it is very important to state that it is not everyone driving a car that is a "driver". The reason is that, some do not have the licence to drive. In fact, one phenomenon wide spreading in my district, Central Tongu, is odaka riders becoming "drivers" after a week's learning of how to drive a car on football pitches. These guys without doubt, do not have the competence to sit behind the steering wheel. Another dangerous cause which is far disturbing than the previous causes I mentioned is some unscrupulous persons in the Ghana Police Service and DVLA: There are lot of drivers with driver's licenses who were not actually tested before the licenses were given to them. Once you have the money, you can pay for it. Now the police. These guys are surposed to be the backstop to everything, and you know how. But unfortunately, they are deeply involved in the lawlessness. All road users have come to believe that, the reason why the vehicle is stopped on the way by the police officer is not for their safety, but for the purpose of taking a levy from the driver.
Governance by politicians that lack deeper commitments is not far from the blame. Our roads could be dualized. The roads could be maintained regularly to avoid the wide potholes. The traffic lights, road signs and speed tables must be at the appropriate places on the road. A case in point is the over speeding and indiscipline by "hiring cars" on the Ho-Adidome-Sogakorfe road. The many communities along this road network became victims of many forms of road accidents due to the absence of speed tables. I wrote a lot of letters to the Assembly which were forwarded with cover letters by the assembly, but government has failed to give it consideration.
This has led to many communities along this stretch of highway building their own speed tables which are mostly too high and not safe.
I am not writing this for those who have lost their lives and for those who are now disabled due to the many road accidents. I write this with the hope that all stakeholders could rise up to prevent future accidents. We are all at stake. Anytime you are on board, no matter how short your intended journey, you are at risk. You see, the irony is that, your car could be licensed with all the insurances. You could be a well trained and licensed driver yourself and your car could be road-worthy. But it could take another road user, I mean a car without any of those things I mentioned, to send you to your grave. This is the reason why we must force policy makers and law enforcement to do their work diligently. You can't be silent because your safety is at stake.
Emmanuel Wuadi Abyegah.
Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=187880986054776&id=104972594345616
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