A Risky Affair

The freshly commissioned George Walker Bush Motorway

The six-lane George W. Bush Highway, as a tangible American gift to the people of Ghana, passes for the highest point in the diplomatic links between the United States and our country.

The showpiece has already claimed six lives.
The first of its kind in the country, the project has enhanced the skyline of the country and facilitated the transportation of airfreight-bound farm produce to the airport but it remains a real threat to the people it is intended to help.

Information reaching us suggests that what is supposed to be a thing of joy is posing a threat to the lives of the people living close to the beautiful state-of-the-art highway.

Some cynics have even cast aspersions on the engineers who designed the project. We disagree with such cynics, preferring rather to express concern about the typical Ghanaian apathy towards things which could endanger their lives and not the design per se.

Pedestrian pavements in Accra are largely ignored by those they are intended to serve and so protect them from being killed by motorists on the roads. Yet, these facilities which were provided at a great cost to the taxpayer are not put to good use.

We are largely a people who do not listen to good counsel about what to do and what not to. We would distance ourselves from those who have decided not to shower accolades on the good engineering work as epitomized by the highway under review.

Much as perhaps there could be a few modifications to the project, what needs to be done now is put a mechanism in place to compel all persons who want to cross the highway to do so through the overpasses.

We are not used to using such life-saving facilities on highways as evidenced by the unused Nima Overpass. Although the Kaneshie Market Overpass is largely used, there is still a considerable number which prefers scaling the median on the dual carriageway. The authorities installed a razor fencing to stop irresponsible adults from scaling the place and endangering their lives unduly.

This did not deter them from doing so, a situation which has compelled the city authorities to raise the median further, an unusual spectacle on such ways.

Regarding the George W. Bush highway, we think that something can be done to compel people to patronize the provided overpass.

Those who risk their lives by attempting to race across the six-lane carriageway must be persons whose senses need examination.

Why someone would want to cross such a busy road- baby on the back and carrying a load of sachet water on the head- is beyond imagination.

Something must be done to stop the fatalities on this highway because they are avoidable.