Depressing road crashes, our woes

Road crashes continue to be a major problem in the country. This month alone, although it has not come to an end, about 30 lives have been lost in road crashes throughout the country, with the latest being the accident which claimed about 10 lives at Savelugu in the Northern Region on January 23.

The carnage on our roads was even more disturbing in the Christmas season last year, during which, according to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), about 43 fatalities and 202 injuries were recorded between December 24, 2021 and January 1, 2022.

A life lost is irreplaceable, especially when such a life could be the breadwinner of a family. That is why we are saddened by provisional data from the MTTD of the Ghana Police Service that 2,924 lives were lost to road accidents last year.

The figure represents an increase of 12.94 per cent compared to 2020, which saw the loss of 2,589 lives.

We strongly believe that there may be something fundamentally wrong with all of us as citizens — pedestrians, drivers, law enforcement agencies and regulators. Otherwise, we will not be witnessing increasing figures in road fatalities on an annual basis.

From the statistics, 607 deaths, representing 28.5 per cent of the casualties recorded, happened as a result of pedestrian knockdown, while 912 commuters, representing 42.8 per cent, lost their lives through motorcycle accidents, whereas 725 people, representing 34.1 per cent of total fatalities, died as a result of commercial vehicle accidents.

These figures are alarming, hence our concern and the need for mitigating measures to overcome the challenge.

Is it the issue that our authorities are not doing enough with respect to education, enforcement, and regulation? This is because year in, year out we find and see officials of the MTTD, the National Road Safety Authority and non-governmental organisations embark on educational and sensitisation programmes to create awareness of dangerous driving, speeding, drink-driving, red light jumping, non-adherence to lane driving, overtaking in a wrongful manner, among others.

With the advent of technology, we believe that the mounting of cameras to check some of these negative driving attitudes needs to be expanded across the country. In our major towns and cities where these cameras are mounted, we believe that our law enforcement agencies must be up and doing to pursue more of such deviant motorists to ensure that our roads are secure and safe.

This will also require that our highways, where most of these accidents occur, are also fitted with the cameras for officers to monitor and deal with drivers who may be found to be erring and putting the lives of innocent passengers at risk.

It will also require that our police personnel, some of whom are not even with the MTTD, must stand in readiness to deal with drivers creating fear and panic on our roads.

If the country is to find an antidote to these rising and traumatising road accident figures, we must all put our shoulders to the wheel and drive the process safely.

For instance, with the use of technology, our InterCity State Transport Company buses have been fitted with speed limits, such that their drivers do not go beyond 80 kilometres per hour on the highway. Why can’t our regulators adopt such a system for all long-distance travel buses, especially, the commercial vehicles?

We at the Daily Graphic will continue to encourage deepened education and sensitisation; we believe that Ghana must begin to use technology to address road accidents as well.

We may even add that our authorities must begin to review the licensing regime to ensure that applicants have a certain basic driving knowledge and educational qualification.

We also encourage our authorities to take the bull by the horn by taking a firm decision on the complete ban on the use of motorcycles for commercial purposes or effectively streamline their operations to ensure that riders obey our traffic regulations.

The current situation where regional police commands organise swoops to impound motorcycles and return them to their owners after the payment of fines does not deter riders. For nearly 1,000 lives to be lost through motorcycle crashes is something we should not be happy about.

We, therefore, call for head-on engagement with all stakeholders to find a lasting solution to these depressing road crashes and their attendant loss of lives and maiming of others.