Highway Carnage, Inexplicable Suicides

There is an uncanny obsession among social media enthusiasts for pictures of the dead, especially those dying through accidents and generally under unusual circumstances.

Coincidentally, there have been many deaths through road accidents and suicides, especially among very young persons, prompting a national worry.

The wages of social media are many, one of them being the aforementioned with young persons clicking away shots of the dying and dead bodies hanging from trees and other heights.

When children join the suicide bandwagon there is cause to worry, and in the case of students, we must engage the clinical psychologists and other related experts to help us unravel what is happening. But with the videoing of the scenes, we must consult opinion leaders and men of God to condemn the act in its entirety.

As for the carnage on our roads, it is even more appalling. Now we are beginning to understand why people get embroiled in matters of superstition.

Even more disturbing is the preference for still pictures and video shots of the injured requiring more first aid than the shutters of video cameras of smart phones.

While we welcome the advent of the smart phones and the accompanying social media additives, we frown upon the intrusion of the privacy of not only the living, but the dead as well.

Of what benefit is the picture of the nudity of a dying accident victim? Spending time to take such shots when the dying accident victim needs first aid and an eventual transfer to hospital is wickedness and a callous disregard for human life. The defaulters are all supposed to belong to the two great faiths of the world.

Let our clerics get busy with spreading the word about the ungodly callousness of peddling in the nudity of the dead more so under such gory circumstances.

The fear of God appears to be waning in a manner which calls for concern. It takes only the ungodly to want to take shots of the nudity of the dead and disseminate same without regard for morality.

The carnage on our roads is taking an unusual dimension and we must all as a people arrest the situation and soonest.

We cannot continue to lose our human resources in the manner we are witnessing it in the past few days. Four nursing students losing their lives under such avoidable circumstances is painful. Imagine the pain the parents and other family members who have contributed towards their education are enduring as pictures of these beautiful ladies make the rounds on smart phones.

Sometimes we are compelled to demand that the acquisition of the drivers' licence be restricted to persons with a certain minimum level of education.

While some might not agree with us, we maintain our position, considering the quality of commercial drivers who ply our highways and their propensity to overtake and cause avoidable accidents. There is no doubt that most of these accidents are attributable to overtaking and even sleep-driving.

When drivers have a minimum level of education, speaking to them about what to avoid while behind the steering wheels would be a productive venture and not a useless one as has been the case in the past.

The accidents are just too many and no longer attracting the headline that they deserve. With the smart phones now within the reach of most Ghanaians, the privacy of the dead is no longer guaranteed.