Charles Addai writes: Road Accident in Ghana is deadlier than Coronavirus
Road accident in Ghana is the scariest terminator than the Coronavirus. Day in and day out, accidents claim the lives of about six people on average.
In January and February alone, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) recorded 222 deaths on our roads. On 9th March 2020, 30 people were reported to have burnt to death on the Kitampo-Tamale road. By a simple analogy, about 400 people have died so far on our roads in Ghana. The figure is much higher than the number of people who have died of the coronavirus infection in Italy (366).
In the whole of China with about 1.3billion people, less than 3000 people have died of the coronavirus. So, road deaths in Ghana at the moment is about 13.6% of the corona viral deaths in China. This means that by the time the number of corona viral deaths rises to 300,000 in China, about 41,000 people might have lost their lives on the deadly Ghana roads. In 2017, the NRSC recorded a total of 2,076 road fatalities in Ghana.
Therefore, our politicians and the journalists in Ghana must stop the empty jabbering about the coronavirus and look for ways to fix our basic problems. People in Ghana must fear the roads and insane driving than the coronavirus.
By: Charles Addai, Finland.
References:
Road accident fatalities in 2020, [Online] Retrieved from http://www.nrsc.gov.gh/
[Accessed on 9.03.2020]
Coronavirus, 366 deaths now confirmed in Italy [Online] Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51799956 [Accessed on 9.03.2020]
30 people burnt to death in Kintampo-Tamale road crash [Online] Retrieved from
https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/30-people-burnt-to-death-in-Kintampo-Tamale-road-crash-888631 [Accessed on 9.03.2020]
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No political party and its leaders in the country have the Political Will to ameliorate this Senseless Carnage on our roads /highways. Our leaders / Politicians are always calling or ready to Apply non-working remedy to combat the loss of lives on our roads. First among the non-working remedy or prescription is Blaming the drivers who are undisciplined and followed by Bad roads. Of course, we have drivers who are lacking discipline and won’t follow the simplest of our road laws. We have organized countless Road Safety campaigns which have yielded no results and yet we keep shouting from our roof tops that these bad drivers must Conform! we have been calling on our Traffic Police to enforce all the laws on our books and none of them seem to stem the rising tide of Carnage on our roads/highways. When will our experts and Political leaders TRY something different? The Something Different that our leaders are AFRAID of is having the WILL POWER and COURAGE to construct DUAL CARRIAGE roads/highways. Our road construction is STILL following the 20th Century roads construction model left behind by our Colonial Masters about 63 Years ago! Our old roads and new roads are too Narrow that in the Developed countries these roads would be used as side FARM / Countryside roads. I can state Unscientifically that about 70 per cent of our deadly road accidents are HEAD-ON Collisions. Most of these Head-On collisions leading to loss of lives are caused by IMPATIENT drivers trying to OVERTAKE the cars/vehicles IN FRONT of them! I’m WILLING to challenge or BET the Doubting Thomases who are still relying on Ancient prescription of Road Safety Campaigns like blaming Bad Drivers / Roads for these DEADLY accidents to try Constructing DUAL CARRIAGE roads /Highways on some of our Major Highways like Accra/ Kumasi, Accra/ Cape Coast, Kumasi/Tamale, Kumasi/ Sunyani and they will be seeing an immediate Impact and difference. Until then, our Saturday and Sundays will continue to be the sea of Red and Black Unending funerals.God Help our homeland Ghana!