Stop The Madness And Kill The Carnage

The editor
Pls can you have this article published in your medium for me.

Thank you
It saddened my heart when some ill motivated Ghanaians are reading political machinations into the deaths of some celebrities through road accidents in recent years.

*This is indeed an idle work for an idle mind or hand*.

Ghanaians must grow out of some of these pettiness and sordid absurdity. It is only a person who had lost direction will think through the death of some celebrities like Terry Bonchaka, Suzzy Williams, Kwame Owusu Ansah and Ebony by spewing or churning out wrong information about their deaths to persuade well meaning and responsible Ghanaians into thinking that their deaths were politically motivated.

In fact it beat my imagination why anybody raise any suspicions about the political party's regime under which there deaths were recorded?

This is an apogee of fruitless and wasteful thinking and such thoughts are indeed an apology to Ghanaian mentality and a shame when exposed to the outside world.

In fact, it is one of the useless publications on any social media platform in recent years.

Several reasons from bad road, speeding, night driving, tiredness and even spiritual etc have been ascribed to the accident which took the life of the young pure talented and dexterous dance hall diva Ebony.

To go back to what I have termed *one of the most useless publications in recent times on the social media* , do Ghanaians realise that in all these cases, their cars were damaged extensively and some beyond recognition?

Do Ghanaians again realise that reports after these accidents suggested they were all travelling beyond the speed limits within the area or locality of occurrences of these accidents?

Most of the carnage on our roads are as a result of *speeding/overspeeding.* The earlier we averted our minds to this phenomenon on our roads the better would be for all of us to save precious human lives on our roads.

Some people get into stardom and see themselves as above the laws of the land by choosing to do anything on our roads from excessive speed to reckless driving. Some also get appointed into top positions of the land and began to see themselves above the same laws of the land by which and for which they had these opportunities by driving against traffic flow or use hazard lights or sirens to drive through traffic. Some also by acquisition of V8 and other related vehicles think they are seated above the world and put up all manner of unacceptable behaviours on our roads to the full glare of the police and are free to go.

Now as the traffic situation thickens, an average Ghanaian is thinking of acquiring a seemingly V8 to enable him join the lawless minority whose lawlessness have been endorsed by the police.

Indiscipline has become our bane as a country from the leadership to the followership.

Some passengers or travellers join certain category of vehicles with the sole aim of arriving faster than would have taken an average driver to do the journey as if speed limits on our roads apply differently to different drivers.

A person who patronises Ford bus from Accra to Takoradi expects to arrive at Takoradi at a *maximum* of *three and a half hours*. Those who patronise VVIP or STC expect to do the same journey at a *minimum* of *four and a half hours*.

Do such patrons of Ford buses know the dangers they expose themselves to under such expectations?

I don't think the Police must be on us 24/7 to police us on the very practices which expose us as individuals to danger.

If some of the information coming out of the death of Ebony are true, what will make a person drive at a speed of about 180km/hr at night; is it the trust of the vehicle, trust in our abilities or superior senses or pursue of evil forces?

Another practice which is becoming common on our roads particularly Accra-Takoradi road is construction of speed ramps by the communities along this route.

Much as I agree that speed ramps are required to check some of these lunatic drivers who disregard speed limits when driving through such communities, it is also an offence for individuals or persons of such communities to construct speed ramps per section 22 of Act 683 especially when there are no road signs to warn unsuspecting drivers and are also constructed by disregarding the height of most saloon cars that ply this route.

This practice is becoming an acceptable phenomenon to our Police who stand by to see the constructions of such ramps and the Ghana Highways Authority who hadn't issued any statement to condemn or warn the communities against such practices and do nothing about these ramps until they are practically washed away by the rains.

Some section of Ghanaians are now blaming the contractor who left a heap of sand on that section of the road where the accident occurred. Indeed he is also liable for his negligence but isn't his case even better than the communities who construct unauthorized ramps, or as usual something must happen before we begin to question such practices?

Any indiscipline practices by some lunatic drivers on our roads must not beget another indiscipline practice of any community which could further jeopardise the lives of passengers and other unsuspecting road users and which may also expose them to other security threats such as pursuit by robbers or other miscreants on our roads.

There must be total discipline on our roads by all road users ie drivers, pedestrians and people of the communities along our highways.

Madness which can endanger human life must not be tolerated irrespective of whoever it is emanating from.

One lawlessness is not better than another lawlessness. If speed in excess of acceptable limits is lawless, it does not make unauthorise construction of speed ramps lawful.

Signed
Abeiku Intarmah