Treating ‘madness’ on our roads
That 34 people, who embarked on a journey for various reasons were killed in the middle of it through no fault of theirs, is as heart-wrenching, as it is devastating.
The nation woke up on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 to the sad news of 34 people, including 20 adult males, 11 females and three children dying in an accident at Dompoase in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region.
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Preliminary investigations have attributed the unfortunate incident to human error, on the part of one of the drivers, leading to the deaths.
Troubling
It is no gainsaying the fact that accidents are likely to occur on the roads, but it becomes troubling when the actors, on this occasion, the drivers, refuse to adhere to strict road regulations, resulting in deaths and destruction of property.
Only last Monday, January 13, 2020, the writer of an article on page 7 of the esteemed Daily Graphic, expressed strong views about the carnage on the country’s roads.
In that article, under the headline “Carnage on our roads, curse or recklessness,” the writer asked rhetorically whether or not the carnage was a curse or due to recklessness. I chose the latter for an answer.
As a road user daily, I can defend my position to the hilt.
I can talk about the indiscipline and how people (particularly the youth), who sit behind the steering wheels, assume wrongly that they control the road and the vehicles, thereby, throwing caution to the wind.
Indeed, a greater percentage of the so-called accidents on the country’s road could be avoided if there is greater circumspection, discipline and right judgement.
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Statistics
In his article, a day before the carnage on the Cape Coast-Takoradi Road, the author, Baba Musa detailed the Statistics by the National Road Safety Commission and the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) to buttress his point.
It is reported that 168 vehicular accidents occurred in 2019 during the festive season as against 144 accidents same period in 2018.
As a result, 203 people died, while 31 people were injured during the 2019 festive season from December 24 to December 26, 2019. Similarly, 74 people reportedly died on January 1, 2020.
Between 1991 to 2018, 46,284 people were killed as a result of road crashes. Thus, in the last 27 years, an average of 1,714 people have been killed on our roads through accidents.
Findings reveal that Ghana loses $230 million annually as a result of road accidents.
But can a life lost in a carnage be quantified in monetary terms? No! That is because one life lost is more valuable than $230million, not to talk about the scores of innocent people who are killed daily.
It is learnt that most drivers speed unnecessarily with no regard to road regulations, while others drive recklessly to reach their destinations.
Other factors include the non-maintenance of vehicles.
In this situation some vehicle owners fail to act on faults that are reported to them, thereby playing the ostrich by postponing the maintenance work on their vehicle until the worst happens.
It is my strongest view that the road regulations which treat all “madness” on our roads as an accident be reviewed to punish the perpetrators of such crimes (if they are alive).
The tale will continue to be the same if stringent measures are not put in place to curb these accidents and stop the carnage on our roads.
The time to act is now!
Writer’s E-mail: timgobah@gmail.com