Pedestrians at Kaneshie put their lives at risk

Pedestrians and commuters who use the stretch of highway in front of the Kaneshie Market risk getting knocked down by vehicles following the reluctance on the part of some of them to use the two overhead footbridges provided by the city authorities.

The two overhead pedestrian bridges, one to the east of the Kaneshie Market and the other toward the west, are meant to facilitate the safe crossing of pedestrians to prevent accidents.

Busy highway
The highway is one of the busiest in the city. The road witnesses a heavy vehicular traffic from the western outskirts of the city,  the Central and Western regions and some parts of the Eastern Region. Besides cars and mini-vans, the highway is also noted for carrying huge articulated trucks that mostly convey goods from the Takoradi Harbour to Accra and vice versa.

Damaged barbed wires
Some years ago, in an effort to prevent people from crossing the highway unnecessarily, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) built a concrete wall on the halfway line on the road to restrain pedestrians in their bid to cross the road. Unfortunately, that did not yield the expected result.

The city authorities, therefore, followed it up by putting up a wire mesh on top of the concrete wall. Some level of responsibility was, however, exercised for a period. However, with time and as a result of the vagaries of the weather, certain portions of the wire mesh gave way, affording some recalcitrant pedestrians the chance to go against the established norm.

The Daily Graphic has observed that two different sections of the road have had the barbed wires either deliberately damaged or removed to give the violators easy access.

In their rush to cross, the stubborn and daring ones, without shame, can be seen scaling the concrete walls in the middle of the road, sometimes landing in awkward positions against oncoming traffic.

AMA response
The Daily Graphic tried severally to speak to the AMA and the Ghana Highways Authority but was unsuccessful, as the respondents claimed they were busy attending meetings.