Roads are to enhance development, not kill us

The effects of a bad road network is public knowledge. It leads to slow economic activities as it takes longer for goods and services to reach the final consumer, and this tends to affect socio-economic growth. It can even become worse when goods that have to reach the final consumer are of a perishable nature. In such a case, the goods get rotten, leading to complete loss to the farmer and the trader.

It is not uncommon to hear of a glut of perishable items in the food producing areas because of bad roads, a situation that leaves traders and farmers, who are also breadwinners, cash-strapped. The post-harvest losses that sometimes come about as a result of this discourage others from entering into farming, which has been described as the only area that does not declare overemployment.

It is thus to enhance economic activities for rapid socio-economic development that governments spend huge sums of money to keep road infrastructure in shape and also build new ones.

However, it seems the intention behind constructing good roads is being defeated by the numerous and ghastly accidents that we have to contend with on the country’s roads.

The National Road Safety Commission said 708 people died from 4,049 road accidents in the first quarter of last year. This figure is aside from the thousands who got injured, some getting wounded permanently. Sixty per cent of the road fatalities were a result of speeding.

A few of the casualties we have had to deal with as a country in the recent past give citizens something to ponder over. Four medical specialists lost their through a road crash when they on their way to perform official duties. A Deputy Minister of Tourism, a very progressive, visionary personality by all standards, lost his life when he was on official assignment.

A number of artistes in our recent history have also lost their lives through motor accidents. As we raise these issues, at the time the nation is the passing of musician Ebony Reigns, several people have also perished on the Volta Lake. For how long can these continue? And for how long do we tolerate this?
Disasters are bound to happen, but we believe they could be reduced, properly handled and their effects minimized when the proper mechanisms are put in place to deal with them.

This is where we reiterate the call that the country should do the right things to ensure that we prevent these accidents that claim innocent lives. Any organisation that shirks its responsibility has overtly or covertly contributed to the menace of road accidents in the country.

Conversely, we remind motorists that their lives are in their hands and they should, therefore, be mindful of traffic rules and regulations, such as avoidance of drink-driving and needless speeding.

Regarding lake transport, we admonish operators to avoid overloading and to use properly designed and constructed boats that have no structural deficiencies. We also urge that the boats be put on regular maintenance. But this cannot be achieved if the authorities charged with the responsibility for overseeing river transport do not perform their task as expected.