Welfare scheme for road accident victims fails to materialise - GPRTU blamed

A WELFARE scheme that was to absorb the financial liability of long distance road transport passengers involved in accidents has failed to materialise after it was launched some four years ago.

That is in spite of the fact that the initiative, which would have absorbed the entire medical expenses of all accident victims nationwide, had received separate endorsements from the Ministry of Transport, the Ghana Private Roads transport Union (GPRTU) and other private commercial vehicle operators in the country.

The scheme was mooted by Jegiva 1076 Agencies Limited, a private company owned and operated by insurance professionals, legal practitioners and human resource administrators, to help ease the financial burdens that road accident victims go through in their quest to access medical services.

Per the initiative, each long distance passenger was to pay an extra GH50p as a service charge which would then be used to cater for the full medical expenses of the passenger in the event of an incident.

The Managing Director of  Jegiva, Mr A. A. A. Amoah, however, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that although his outfit had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the GPRTU, which is the biggest umbrella body of private commercial vehicle owners and drivers, the union had reneged on its promise.

"We signed an MoU in April 2010 and the plan was to start the implementation in July, the same year. Following the MoU, GPRTU made us (Jegiva) to print flyers, posters and make voice overs which were circulated and aired at the stations.

All these things cost us over GH¢10,000 but as we speak now, the scheme is yet to takeoff," Mr Amoah said while showing some of the flyers on the welfare scheme to the paper.

Mode of operation

On how the scheme was to function, Mr Amoah explained that his outfit had recruited over 1,000 people throughout the country to take the details of passengers travelling on any of the GPRTU registered vehicles.

Such details, which would have included the contact persons of relatives, would then be fed into a database and later be relied on in cases of accidents.

"The plan was to enter into an agreement with Ghana Health Services to treat accidents victims and payments done after every week," he added. 

Concerns of GPRTU, others

Between January and September, last year, the National Road Safety Commission reported that some 1,539 lives were lost to road crashes throughout the country.

Another 2,249 deaths were recorded in 2012, according to the commission.

Although Mr Amoah, who is a chartered insurer, admitted that accidents are bound to happen, he said the causality rates could have reduced should victims always get prompt medical attention.

"In most cases, some of the victims bleed to death simply because the hospitals where they are rushed to cannot guarantee that the victims will be able to replace any blood used on them," he said, noting that the welfare scheme was meant to address such difficulties.

"The motive is not to make money but to make life meaningful to the passengers and the good people of this country," he said.

While admitting that the initiative would help save lives, the National Chairman of GPRTU told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in a separate interview that getting the passengers to pay the extra cost has been the concern.

"It is a good idea but the truth is, it is not the national secretariat (of GPRTU) that is going to pay that GH50p; it is the passengers and so we have been trying to persuade them and the branch chairmen to add that amount," he said.

He was hopeful the scheme would takeoff soon for passengers nationwide to benefit.