Carnage on our roads, curse or recklessness?
Anytime I hear statistics put out by the National Road Safety Authority or Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), what comes to mind immediately is, when will the carnage on our roads reduce significantly or drastically?
It is reported that 168 vehicular accidents occurred in 2019 during the festive season as against 144 accidents same period in 2018.
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As a result, 203 people died while 31 people were injured during the 2019 festive season from December 24-26, 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 were killed on our roads through accidents.
Are most of these accidents not preventable? What are we not doing right as a country? Who will be included in the next statistics of road accidents in the country? Is Ghana doing enough to curb the annual carnage?
Worrying spate of killings
Something ought to be done to check the worrying spate of killings on our roads. One should not be under the illusion that since one drives carefully, one is totally immune from road accidents. This is because the other person on the opposite direction or even behind you could recklessly run into you.
Experts say that Ghana loses $230 million dollars annually as a result of road accidents.
But I think the total cost of these road accidents are unquantifiable because one life lost is more valuable than $230million not to talk about thousands of people perishing annually.
About two days ago, I read a story published by the Independent newspaper, a UK-based news magazine which said that in 2019, the entire country, of Norway, 110 were killed in 2019 as against 108 in 2018.
Someone might say that Norway is relatively small a country compared to Ghana, but that argument is far-fetched.
There are other countries bigger than Ghana, in terms of human and vehicular populations but with minimal cases of accidents. It is also on record that most of the accidents that occur in the country are due to human factors.
It is learned that most drivers speed unnecessarily with no regard to road regulations, while others drive recklessly to reach their destinations and return many times.
Other factors
Other factors include non-maintenance of vehicle.
In this situation some vehicle owner fails to act on maintenance issues reported to them thereby playing the postponing the maintenance work on their vehicle until the worse happens.
Something ought to be done and done right to safeguard innocent lives (road users) in the country. The argument is not about ensuring a complete eradication, but a greater reduction in the number of road accidents.
The time to act is now!