Crushing okada crashes -Helmet use campaign intensifies

A sea of vehicles move bumper-to-bumper amid the tooting of horns on the busy Kaneshie-Graphic Road, which leads into the central business district of Accra. Scores of motorcycle riders meander their way through the gridlock, with pillion passengers clinging to their backs.

According to the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety, 2023, between 2010 and 2021, the number of registered motorcycles in Ghana increased from 57,518 to 148,126. 

The thousands of motorcycle riders charge passengers a fare contrary to Section 128 (1) of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (Legislative Instrument 2180), which states that the licensing authority shall not register a motorcycle to carry a fare-paying passenger.” Despite this provision, an increasing number of people are in the business of carrying passengers for a fare.

Among the motorcyclists is 46-year-old Adam Sule, who has been in the commercial motorcycling business — known in local parlance as Okada — since 2004. Unlike some motor cycle riders, the father of six, resident in Kasoa in the Central Region, wore a well-fitted helmet, and had a spare one tied to the back of his motorcycle. When the traffic light turned red, he waited for it to turn green so he could move. 

I beckoned him over for a ride, and as soon as he arrived, he handed me the spare helmet. 

From the ensuing conversation, I learned that Mr Sule was on his way to a town hall meeting arranged by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to sensitise motor riders to the need to wear helmets and observe road traffic regulations.

Mr Sule gave a chilling account of how he became a staunch adherent of the wearing of  helmet, after he survived a road crash in 2019. 

“I was involved in a road crash in 2019 on the Kasoa New Market Road, and I nearly lost my life. I was riding behind a long truck, and a taxi driver crashed into me. My head hit the paved ground. I was told I became unconscious. 

“I was resuscitated at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital at Winneba in the Central Region. What saved me was the helmet,” he narrated.

Five years after beating death, he still battles with the impact of the crash. 

“Even until now, I still have problems with my eye, and I go for routine medical attention,” he said, pointing to the left eye, which had scars depicting traces of where stitches had been undertaken.

Motorcycle crashes

Mr Sule Adam, pointing to the scar he sustained during a  road crash.

Unlike Mr Sule, thousands of riders have lost their lives through road crashes involving motorcycles.

The National Road Traffic Crash and Casualty statistics show that fatalities resulting from motorcycles skyrocketed from a low of 16 deaths in 1991 to an alarming 915 in 2021.

The statistics further reveal that between 2015 and 2020, the fatalities associated with motorcycles had risen consistently — 323 deaths in 2015, 437 in 2016, 453 in 2017, 559 in 2018, 581 in 2019, and 829 in 2020.

A senior manager at the Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation Department of the NRSA, Hanatu Abdulai, attributed the fatalities from motorcycle crashes to an assortment of factors, chief among them being speeding and failure to wear a protective helmet while riding.

She explained that while speeding primarily did not lead to head-on collisions either with other vehicles or other road objects, not wearing helmets increased the risk of death, especially when the head hits the road surface or other objects.

Safe speed is one of the crucial pillars of the Safe Systems approach to road safety, which has been recommended by the PIARC (World Road Association) and adopted by many countries, including Ghana. 

Road crashes account for an estimated 1.19 million deaths, and up to 50 million injuries worldwide, each year, with over 90 per cent of the deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Interventions

In a bid to check motorcycle fatalities, the NRSA, in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service, introduced the “Stay Alive” road safety campaign, as well as the Police Action against Rider Indiscipline (PAARI) and Police Invisible Eye (PIE) projects.

The “Stay Alive” campaign was launched in 2021 to change drivers' and riders' attitudes toward speeding, wrongful overtaking, driving tired, and jumping red lights. The campaign also emphasised the need for motor riders to wear crash helmets to reduce the chances of fatalities related to motorcycle crashes.

Under that campaign, the NRSA and its collaborators, including the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, organised town hall meetings for okada operators. At the town hall meetings, the riders were educated on the need to wear crash helmets and obey road traffic regulations. Some riders were trained on best safety practices to serve as trainers for their colleagues.

After almost a year of the Stay Alive initiative, the police rolled out Operation PAARI to enforce compliance. As captured on the Ghana Police Service Official X (formerly Twitter) page on July 20, 2022, “Operation PAARI was launched by the Police Service to encourage self-discipline and respect for traffic regulations among the riding public, as well as help curb the incidents of rider indiscipline and their associated road accidents and fatalities”.

As part of Operation PAARI, a team of police riders were deployed with body cameras to monitor the conduct of okada operators at major intersections and other strategic locations. The teams followed offending motor riders and arrested them at convenient and safe places. Such riders were either prosecuted or named and shamed.

Following the campaign's introduction, helmet use improved, with the Okada Riders Association of Ghana (ORAG) Chairman, Mohammed Tijani, confirming that unlike the old order when just a few of their 700,000 members wore helmets, over 70 per cent of them had started wearing them regularly. Besides, road crash fatalities involving motorcycles dropped from 915 in 2021 to 715 in 2022.

Ms Abdulai revealed that although the NRSA was validating the crash figures for 2023, the statistics pointed to a further reduction in motorcycle-related deaths.

To further push down the fatalities associated with motorcycle crashes, the NRSA has intensified public education, awareness creation and education for all riders to wear helmets before they hit the roads.

Through the awareness creation programme, more than 500 okada operators have been trained and supported with motor riding kits, including helmets, gloves, reflectors and shin guards.  

The latest WHO Status Report on Road Safety in WHO African Region, 2023, published on July 17, 2024 strengthens the justification for the NRSA's move. The report found that helmet use could reduce the risk of death by 42 per cent and the risk of head injury by almost 70 per cent. 

However, the protective effect is significantly reduced if a non-standard helmet is used or is not fastened correctly. 

The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) also indicates that wearing a motorcycle helmet reduces the risk of a head injury by 69 per cent, while a helmet could reduce the risk of death in a motorcycle collision by 37 per cent for riders and 41 per cent for passengers. 

Compliance

This Okada rider failed to wear a crash helmet, although he has one

Biney Ohene, a member of the Suhum Okada Union in the Eastern Region, said wearing a crash helmet had become a daily routine ever since he benefitted from the sensitisation programme. 

“I have learned a lot about the importance of wearing a helmet. Now, I know that the police do not hate me when they insist that I should wear a helmet before I ride a motorcycle,” he said.

Such is the case with James Morgan, the National Road Safety Officer of the Okada Riders Association of Ghana (ORAG). The 38-year-old said wearing a helmet had become part of his life. 

“I feel incomplete anytime I sit on my motorbike without a helmet,” he said.

However, at Agbogbloshie, Kaneshie, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the central business district in Accra, and some highways noted for motorbike traffic, some okada operators were found wearing fake helmets, while others did not have one at all.

In other cases, the motorbike riders had helmets, but the pillion riders did not. 

Apart from overloading the motorcycle, this Okada rider is also endangering the lives of the school children by not ensuring that they wear crash helmets.

Interestingly, some okada operators had helmets tied to the back of the motorbike instead of putting them on their heads.

Some okada operators and pillion riders gave varying reasons, mostly bordering on a disregard for safety, for not putting on helmets.

For instance, 24-year-old Abena Konja said although she used the services of okada operators, she avoided helmets because they were dirty and sometimes gave off offensive odour. 

“The okada boys do not keep the helmets clean. Sometimes, I feel nauseous when I wear them, so I avoid them,” she said.

An okada operator, Aziz Zakari, who lives at Old Fadama, said he rarely used a helmet because it generated heat and made him uncomfortable, especially when the sun was scorching. 

“I usually put on a hat that looks like a helmet, so when the police see me from afar, they do not know that it is not a proper helmet,” he said.

When asked if he knew that declining to wear a helmet put his life at risk, the 31-year-old said: “I have been riding okada for many years now, and I have never been involved in a crash”.

Mr Mohammed Tijani, Chairman of the Okada Riders Association of Ghana, explaining a point to Timothy Ngnenbe, a journalist with the Daily Graphic

Helmet Standards

Meanwhile, the NRSA is spearheading the development of standards for motorcyclists' manufacture and the use of crash helmets.

The NRSA's Director-General, David Osafo Adonteng, said the NRSA had collaborated with the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to develop the standards, which would come into force early next year.

He said the standards were being developed according to WHO requirements, as contained in the second edition of “Helmets: A Road Safety Manual for Decision-makers and Practitioners”, launched on April 5, 2023.

“We have reached an advanced stage because drafts have already been prepared, so we will engage stakeholders for input from certain critical institutions and organisations to firm it up,” Mr Adonteng added.

The Chairman of the Okada Riders Association of Ghana, Mr Tijani, said the association had stepped up education and collaboration with the NRSA to promote helmet use.

“We are doing our best, but you know that there is a black sheep in every family. We are telling our members to wear helmets, good boots, and other protective gear for their safety,” he said.