Killings On The Road: One Billion Ghana Cedis Approved For Road Signs, Traffic Lights

The ruling NPP government under Nana AKufo-Addo has approved an amount of GHC1 Billion for the fixing of road signs and traffic lights in order to deal with the rising spate of road accidents.

This follows last week's sad incidents which have claimed close to 90 lives in two separate accidents.

On Friday, 30 people died in a fatal accident which occurred at the Ekumfi Abor on the Winneba-Cape Coast Highway in the Ekumfi District of the Central Region.

On the same day, more than 70 passengers on board died instantly when two buses collided head-on on the Tamale-Kintampo Highway.

The accident occurred at Amoma Nkwanta, a village near Kintampo in the Kintampo North Municipality of the Bono East Region, along the main Kintampo-Tamale Highway.

It was confirmed that a VVIP Kia bus with registration number GT 3915- 17 from Garu in the Upper East Region heading towards Kumasi collided with a Grandbird bus with registration number GT 5694-18 from Accra which was heading towards Bolgantaga also in the Upper East Region.

It is unclear what might have caused the collision but it is speculated that one of the drivers might have been dozing off and run into the lane of the other from the opposite direction.

The accident involved a Yutong bus which was travelling from Takoradi to Accra and a Metro Mass Transit bus heading towards Cape Coast.

According to an eyewitness, the Yutong bus was trying to overtake another vehicle in the wet morning when the accident occurred.

This shocked the country and got many talking with social media going crazy with users calling on the government to make the numerous road laws work.

On Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis show on Saturday, Randy Abbey, host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV described the country as “...a nation of talkatives.”

He described state authorities’ reaction to recurrent national issues, one of them the increasing spate of road accidents as only paying lip service to the issues.

Meanwhile, government reiterates commiserations to victims and families affected by the recent incidents of road carnage that have claimed close to 90 lives since on Friday.

President Nana Akufo-Addo speaking within hours of the incident on Friday morning, sympathised with the families and challenged the Police Council to regulate road traffic.

He also called for the speedy implementation of the recommendations of the inter-ministerial committee set up last year to propose ways to deal with carnage on our roads.

The Information minister confirmed that the government has also undertaken to underwrite the treatment costs of the injured.

---MyJoyOnline