No Life Should Be Lost Again In A Vehicle Accident

I write to plead with drivers to end road accidents as it’s evident that most road accidents that have claimed lives of Ghanaians were as a result of careless and speed driving.

Since it’s the human being who drives the car and not the machine called car that drives the human I say with the demise of Ebony that shook this country drivers should make a pledge that no life would be lost again through speeding and careless driving.

Whether it is a stone left on the road by a contractor or an articulator track that was left untendered on the road that causes the fatal accidents, I believe a slow moving driver would observe any obstacle ahead of time to be able to safe lives.

Any attempt to focus on other factors of motor vehicle accident without pointing out to the fact that human errors by drivers especially speeding or ‘over speeding’ kills is a joke in the fight against motor vehicle accident.

Though there is a punishment for drivers involved in motor vehicle accidents found to have played a role in accidents it appears that in recent times irrespective of the major development on the road infrastructure, more lives has been lost through road accidents than the era in which roads were bad.

Anytime a motor vehicle accident claim a live of a celebrity or a large number of passengers then the country begin to identify the cause of the incidence usually in a blamable manner.

I am saying that, Henceforth, causes as well as solutions to road accidents need no emphasis, what is needed is an urgent actions on speeding and careless drivers on our roads.

Time has come to courageously tell our drivers they are the cause of most fatalities on our roads so they must check themselves. Don’t tell me the police man presence or absence on the roads, potholes, or the sand and stones left behind by the road contractor caused the accident instead say the speeding and careless driving usually result to these vehicular accidents.

For me cause assigned to this carnage on our roads is too repetitive and an ostrich approach not meant to solve the problem.

Again, I do not think that educating public on road safety nullifies implementation and checking of careless driving and bringing perpetrators to book to serve as a deterrent.

Hence my call to road safety commission and other related ally institutions supporting the police MTTD to commit resources to the enforcement of the road traffic regulations with particular emphasis on checking speeding drivers and careless drivers.

Blaming government or the police is neither here nor there the speeding of the driver unchecked by the passengers for fear of insult and touted as too knowing is the course of the road accident in Ghana today.

I know some commercial drivers compete for passengers on the road hence speeding and careless driving I have also been told that some bus drivers are paid based on number of trips to for private car drivers they beehive they are vehicles are efficient and can go more than others.

Whichever way I Plead with drivers who just hate to see a slow moving vehicle ahead of themes to realize that their vehicles are machines that transport people and not for racing .they are to note that they have a social contract with passengers in their vehicle to drive them safe to their destinations.

Had it not been government latest reassurance to retool the Ghana Police Service, I would have asked the Ministry of the Interior to provide police with necessary speeding and alcohol intake checking equipments and insist on the MTTD’S presences on the roads. I believe that their presence on the roads does more good to saving lives especially through checking of speeding and careless driving.

David Fianko-Okyere
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