Abepotia Accident, Road Crashes And Whom To Blame

Road carnages in Ghana continue to soar; deaths and serious injuries continue to increase. For instance, in 2014 the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) expected to record 1,730 and 4,797 for national fatality and serious injury respectively; however, 1,836 and 11,027 were respectively recorded at the end of the year.

The trend has never changed for the past years. Perhaps we do not know who to hold responsible to maintaining safety on our roads. Uncountable road accidents have occurred in recent times but I will use that which occurred at Nkawkaw-Abepotia as a case study for this article.

Abepotia accident
The incident occurred on June 4 at about 4:30am. An eye witness account held that the driver of the rickety neoplan bus on reaching a speed table lost control in an attempt to jump over it, summersaulted and landed back on its wheels. It went forward and ran into a stationary tanker. On the spot two people died and three others died at the Nkawkaw Holy Family hospital.

According to the NRSC in Eastern region, the vehicle though had roadworthy, it was not road worthy. They observed a structure had been built within its main structure. A new chassis built on top of the old one, apparently meant to support the loads it was carrying.

There were loads on the vehicle, inside it and under it. It took a kia cargo truck three trips to convey all the loads that vehicle was carrying to the Nkawkaw police divisional command. That tells how much load that bus was carrying. Authorities counted ten peak fit barrels full of oil, in addition to more than 20 ‘Kuffuor’ gallons also containing oil and other materials and luggage. 56 passengers, comprising 36 women, 12 children, seven men including some conductors were on board. The passengers were mainly head potters (kayayei) believed to be travelling to Walewale to observe the Ramadan.

It is therefore not surprising that the driver lost control. If we look back from where the journey was started it is possible that the driver did not rest for almost eight hours before he started the journey. According to the NRSC, the driver supervised and took part in the loading of the goods immediately after which he took the journey.

And if the driver got to Abepotia at about 6am, it means he started the journey around 2am from Agbogbloshie-Accra, which also means they started loading the goods into the vehicle from 10pm the previous night.

At least it is common knowledge that vehicle manufacturers make sure the gross weight of a vehicle is directly equal to the effort its break needs to stop the vehicle. So if one overloads a vehicle, it means they exceed the effort the break needs to stop the vehicle. That is why many at times when vehicles are overloaded their breaks don’t become effective and they crash.

Another possible cause of the accident could be that he was sleeping so he didn’t see the speed table. Yet again that speed table at Abepotia was very bad according to NRSC. It was damaged such that if one drove on it, their wheels could slip. It might not be the cause but that ramp is dangerous.

But for the timely intervention of the Nkawkaw police, the fire service, ambulance service and the holy family hospital, more lives would have been lost. Thank God the over 50 injured persons have all been treated and discharged.

The issues
The Nkawkaw bypass has been one of the places that contribute to fatal accidents in the country. When from Kumasi to Accra, the other carriage road ends abruptly at Nkawkaw and because there are no road signs drivers are tricked to crash there. Many crashes have been recorded there according to the ER NRSC director, Mr. Kwasi Yirenkyi, and there are no chevrons that could alert drivers who reach that point.

Drivers also do not take their time when driving. Many of the crashes occur because they do not take caution in driving. They do not take cognisance of and to understand the road signs where there are. And of course some drivers do not make time to study the mechanics about their vehicles.

It still beats my imagination why we still combine human beings with (heavy and voluminous) goods in road transport. The situation where we lump passengers and goods together is really hampering progress in efforts to reduce road carnage. Remember, it took a big Kia cargo truck three trips to convey all loads that vehicle was carrying, minus the 56 persons.

It looks as if the transport unions in the country are only interested in making money from their drivers and passengers. They do not have any measure to check drivers before leaving their yards on a journey. From all indications, they do not have the interest to ensure passenger safety. They simply are not living up to their responsibilities.

In my view when one joins a bus from a registered station, it means they have signed a contract with the union to convey them from the station to their destination safely. And so if they are unable to transport passengers to their destination safely, then passengers or relatives can take legal action against the transport unions. Perhaps we have to test this. They received the passengers as living human beings, not as dead or luggage, so they ought to take them to their destination safely alive. Until we do that transport operators will keep messing with human lives without taking responsibilities.

I believe from 2am from Agbogbloshie to Abepotia, the bus went through several police checkpoints; yet nothing was found wrong with it vis-a-vis the overloading and the fact that it was a 42-seater bus with 56 passengers.

Who is to blame?
All stakeholders, including passengers are responsible for the carnages on our roads. We are the problem and ironically the solution is us.

The police, highway authority and the urban roads department are performing but sometimes it is just difficult to accept that they are performing in the face of increasing road crashes. They must step up their efforts.

For passengers and transport operators, they are the most affected in road crashes but interestingly are the worse culprits in causing road accidents. While we are impressing on the police and the NRSC to step up their tasks in ensuring transport operators and passengers know what to do to be safe on the roads, they must also take the advantage to ensure their own safety. Road safety is a shared and collective responsibility!