According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.25 million people worldwide die yearly due to road accidents. In addition, road injury is the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 29 years whiles ninety per cent (90%) of the global road deaths occur in low and middle-income countries (including Ghana), even though these countries have 54% of automobiles in the world. The National Road Safety Authority (NSRA) revealed that 7,687 road accidents were recorded from January to June 2022.
The authority also disclosed that 1,300 persons were killed in road accidents in Ghana during this period. NSRA data also showed that 7,997 individuals also sustained various degrees of injuries. Surely this figure is frightening to the extent that it makes it difficult for people to settle on the decision to travel, more so by public transport but unfortunately, data shows that 90% of our means of transport is by road.
Many have been the causes outlined by experts and non-experts alike. Ministers of Roads and Highways, state heads including President Akufo-Addo, and stakeholders have settled on high speed, fatigue, wrongful overtaking, tyre bursts, driving under the influence of alcohol, injury control, and disabled vehicles left unattended to, as some of the major causes of the road accidents in the country.
Others also believe that the spate of accidents has spiritual connotations, especially during the year we are about to go to the polls. People from this school think and believe that some politicians are using these innocent victims as sacrificial lambs for their political gains. Well, some are rubbishing thoughts of this nature and think that the accidents are a result of man’s carelessness and have nothing to do with spiritualism.
All the causes mentioned above are possibilities that are mentioned anytime an accident occurs. One other thing that escapes us when outlining the possible causes of road accidents is the nature of roads and the maintenance culture in terms of roads and highways. This is an important cause of accidents that needs to be considered by the government and all concerned if we want to ease the spate of accidents on our roads whilst also looking at the other causes mentioned.
The road situation in the country is appalling, to say the least. Most of the roads in that country are infested with potholes that can be graduated into human trap-holes. These potholes, are fresh and others have seen so many harmattans and this makes one wonder whether the roads these holes are found are roads used or just abandoned. Most of these roads I am talking about are major and busy roads in the country. For instance, our number one highway that is the Accra to Tema Motorway is full of death traps (potholes).
Road construction in Ghana has become anything a contractor can do. Standards are compromised when contracts are given and the results are the numerous shoddy works that surround us.
This aside, the issue of maintenance is also a problem. The rule for road construction has been that one-year retention is given to contractors to monitor and repair defects on the road constructed before the final percentage of the total cost of the project is paid to him/her (contractor). After this period the road is left to fate to take care of it. Anything that happens on it becomes nobody’s business.
Potholes on our roads can be a major cause of road accidents in this country if we do not do anything about them. This is mostly not mentioned because it is interwoven with other causes such as the carelessness of drivers and speeding. Most times when we are in commercial vehicles travelling on these pothole-infested roads, we see drivers trying as much as possible to dodge these potholes as they drive along. Sometimes in the event of dodging a pothole, the drivers find themselves in the lane of oncoming vehicles and this sometimes leads to a crush. When this happens, the experts relate it to carelessness forgetting that the poor nature of the road led to the carelessness of the driver at that particular time.
Dualization of all our major roads can stop most of these accidents because one major form of accident in Ghana is head-on-collision. Even the ones we are having have not been maintained how much more dualizing the rest of them.
When the leadership of the country can construct worthy roads for our drivers to ply on then we can attribute most accidents to the carelessness of the drivers. Politicians often shift blame because of negligence and incompetence to save face.
Ghana is a precious land and so are its inhabitants; every single life matters. We cannot continue to lose our human resources to such an avoidable cause.
Drivers are blaming politicians and politicians are also blaming the drivers for their carelessness…hmmm this country.
With politicians always blaming drivers for careless driving I want to ask if the accident that happens with politicians themselves involve. Were they results of careless driving? If so then the debate should end but if not then the roads must be fixed.
Good one. We appreciate your ideas.