Road Accidents In Ghana: What Is The Way Forward?

It is the topmost priority of most drivers is to arrive at their destination safely. However, by and large, that doesn’t occur. Road accidents all throughout the world, especially in Africa has been exceptionally uncontrolled, and Ghana is no exemption.

For the past number of years, Ghana has encountered major road accidents slaughtering numerous people. In fact, people think it is even killing a larger number of people than the ongoing pandemic. Thusly, they surmise the government’s ‘eye’ should be on this blister much more than Covid, which number of deaths are not as much as road accidents.

As per road safety statistics, about eight (8) people die through car accidents every day, which unmistakably exceeds Coronavirus deaths in Ghana. Truth be told, people even bite the dust through auto crashes without their family members knowing. Families go around searching for them as ‘Missing’.

One occurrence was the point at which a gentleman of about 22 years living with his mother died through a car crash without his mother knowing his whereabout. The gentleman isn’t fond of staying outside the home, as per his mother. So when it was 11PM that day, the mother was very worried because his phone was off.

He called everybody to ask of her son. The mother had a call from his son’s boss wanting to know about him, since he was not present at work, something he has never done. Another call got through that his son’s vehicle was seen at an obscure area. That set off the mother to move around looking for him.

She moved from one medical clinic to the next but all without any result. She at long last arrived at the mortuary just to track down her lifeless son lying there dead. There are a considerable lot of such cases that has occurred on the ground on the blindside of people.

For some years now, road safety campaign in Ghana has been very active but the problem actually exist. Some have reprimanded the government for lack of obligation, while other have also accused ignorant drivers who are not authorized to drive for every one of these dilemmas.

Roads are bad, lack of serious awareness about good driving techniques out and about, as well as weak and defective vehicles are a portion of the serious issues causing an excessive number of deaths on the roads.

Also, some police officers have been fingered in a portion of these deaths, as they let go drivers with fake licenses to cruise all over without arresting and charging them. These law implementers take monies from not road-worthy vehicles and give them the permit to go.

The year is just four months old, but more than 500 people have died through road accidents. Some died on the spot and others also passed on few moments on arriving at the medical clinic. Aside from the abovementioned, health workers have also stated that, accident casualties are not properly taken care of by the people who race to the scene to offer their help.

They mishandle the people in question and before they show up at the hospital, they may have kicked the bucket. As indicated by the Ghana Police Service, an aggregate of 517 people have died through road accidents between January and February this year. And before the year’s over, the numbers may significantly increase.

My Sentiments On The Issue And What Ought To Be Done:

There ought to be a significant street traffic awareness and training for drivers (both private and commercial), perhaps a week by week project to educate all drivers how they should be careful out and about and so on.

Fake licenses should all be scrapped from the system to stop people from going in for one. That said, DVLA ought to also issue out licenses on time to applicants to save them from these con guys from giving phony one to drivers.

The police ought to without a second thought, do well to arrest and colossally fine any person who break the road safety rules rather than continually warning them. The law enforcers ought to be proactive in their activities to drive away all road carnage issues.

All spoilt traffic lights, zebra intersection and overheads are to be fixed promptly, with extreme approvals appended to it. If anyone don’t use the flyover to go across a street, he should be seriously punished. And shouldn’t be a flash in the pan.

Driving school tutors are to step up their training to their students before they step out on the road. And when they are on road, they should recognize all driving rules.

Commercial vehicle conductors (mates) ought not be permitted to drive until they get the required training for a certain number of years.

Motor riders ought not be allowed to pass through red lights while all vehicles are hanging tight for the Green light. Be that as it may, the wearing of helmets are to be made compulsory to both the motor driver and the passenger.

Vehicle Passengers should consistently alarm drivers if they spurn any traffic rules. Drivers ought to also accept any fault if they commit an error.

The government should invest more cash to fix every damaged road, particularly thruways, which turns out to be one where people die more.