Carnage on our roads: When mourners become accident statistics
Fittingly, the Bible cautions that: “Do not be excessively wicked, nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time?” —Ecclesiastes 7:17 (NWT). Truly many have acted or behaved foolishly and died prematurely.
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Let’s refresh our memory with some of the nasty incidents which have characterised some funeral celebration in the country. For brevity, I will restrict myself to only few of them.
- In 2005, 28 members of the EP Church perished in a fatal motor accident when they were travelling to the funeral celebration of a dead member. It was reported that the 33-seater Benz bus on which they were travelling burst one of its rear tyres causing the vehicle to somersault and landed in a valley, killing so many and injuring the rest.
- Again, in May 2006, as many as 34 Catholic Church members on board a 207 Benz bus were crushed to death when the vehicle collided with an STC bus at Akropong junction in the Ashanti Region. The church members were on their way to keep wake for their dead priest when the incident occurred. It was disclosed that the driver of the 207 Benz bus, failed to exercise patience to allow a Tico taxicab ahead of him to branch off the road. He, therefore, swerved to the other lane and collided with the oncoming STC bus. Unfortunately, the STC bus driver and three others also died. Very pathetic indeed!
III. In another instance, on Sunday, October 26, 2006 at 4:30p.m., Mr Kwabena Owusu, aged 28, (an employee of Cocoa Processing Company, Tema.) with his brother, was returning from a funeral celebration of their grandmother at Asamankese, when the vehicle on which they were travelling was involved in a fatal motor accident. We were told that the tipper truck driver was impatiently overtaking four vehicles in a row and collided with their vehicle resulting in the instant death of his brother.
He sustained severe injuries and died two weeks later after battling for survival. All frantic efforts made by the management of Cocoa Processing Company to save his life proved futile.
- Quite recently, in March 31, 2012, three policemen and a civilian died on the spot at Nyinakrom, near Agogo in the Ashanti Region when the vehicle on which they were travelling was involved in an accident. The Daily Guide newspaper reported that they were on their way to bury their dead colleague, L/Copl. Ernest Asamoah, who was killed by an armed robber, near Kasoa.
We have invariably put more premium on funeral celebrations so much such that it is considered a taboo for one to be absent. I cannot fathom why we do all within our means to attend funeral celebrations even at the expense of our health.
Blazer
The Muslim community is the trailblazer when it comes to simple funeral rites. I doff my hat to the Muslim community as far as funeral celebration modernisation is concerned.
From my observation, I have never seen nor heard of motor accident in the Muslim community during funeral celebrations. Never! They consider death as a journey which we all as individuals will embark upon when it occurs. Therefore, they do not adore or waste much time on the dead.
A Muslim friend died in the early hours of Thursday, May 14, 2015 in Community 5, Tema, and by 2:30p.m., he was in the grave. Those of us who were deeply shocked by this sad news could not even reach there to bid him farewell. The Muslims in that community gathered together and buried him according to their tradition.
Conclusion
I conclude on the note that Job viewed the time of waiting in the sleep of death as a compulsory service, an enforced period of waiting for release, which is a certainty. (Job 14:14-15) We should, therefore, consider death as a mere period of waiting in the grave and stop the euphoria associated with it because there is “a time for birth and a time to die”...Ecclesiastes 3:2
All said, it is time we demystified funeral celebrations and their associate activities to reduce motor accidents.
The writer is a Road Safety Advocate.
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