OPINION
Nana Sifa Twum
.jpeg)
Reports have it that the accident occurred after a head-on
collision between a petrol tanker and a bus at about 5 am on Tuesday accusing
the bus driver of sleep driving.
The bus was travelling from Abidjan to Buduburam while the
tanker was filled with petrol, travelling from Accra heading towards Takoradi.
This is just one of numerous such accidents occurring on our roads daily.
Investigations reveal that seven such fatal accidents have
occurred on that particular stretch of the road alone this year most of them
head-on collision.
Accidents and indeed avoidable accidents are becoming one
too many on our roads. This year alone, a total of 3,340 road accidents cases
have been recorded between January to March. A total of 544 individuals were
killed in these road accidents in the country.
Over the week, one major issue that has been a subject for
discussion especially in the media has been the alarming spate of road
accidents in the country.
Much as the issue is so much worrying, what appears to be
much more disturbing is the fact that accidents on our roads have become
perennial.
Many others believe that such motor accidents in the country
are completely avoidable if the nation sets its priorities right.
This argument is based on the fact that over 80 per cent of
fatal accidents that have claimed lives occur on trunk roads that are not dual
carriage, it could be in the rural or urban area.
Head-on collisions on our roads are those that are deemed
fatal and cause high number of deaths.
Head-on collision, which sometimes is referred to as frontal
collision occurs too often on the trunk roads especially during the dark hours.
Two vehicles travelling the opposite direction collide into each other in some
cases when making wrongful overtaking or when one driver is dozing off or in
some cases sleeping. Others drive straight into broken-down vehicles.
In such cases the point of impact is on the straight line
connecting the center of gravity of each of the two vehicles resulting in
deaths of passengers. Certain times other vehicles also get involved as drivers
of these vehicles have very little control, if any, to avoid hitting their
vehicles into the already collided vehicles causing side collision or rear-end
collision.
"The likelihood of surviving a head-on collision.
Research compiled by The Car Crash Detective has shown that the likelihood of
fatalities in a head-on collision increases at speeds above 55 kilometres per
hour. That number comes from research related to Vision Zero, a global
initiative dedicated to reducing auto fatalities."
In Ghana almost all roads and highways that form the trunk
routes between major urban centres are single carriage ones. These ones are the
N Routes, they are 18 in number across the country. The Accra-Kumasi and the
Accra-Takoradi roads, are the two major and busy highways in the country.
Research findings indicate that the greatest risk reduction
in terms of head-on collision all over the world, comes through the separation
of oncoming traffic. This is also known as median separation or median
treatment. This according to experts can reduce road collisions in the order of
70 per cent.
Much as this is understandable, one does not need to
undertake any study before this conclusion. Most head-on collisions on our
roads are simply avoidable if roads especially trunk roads are dualised.
Elsewhere, such as Ireland and Sweden there are large programmes of safety
fencing on some trunk roads.
This is not the case in Ghana, for instance, the
Accra-Kumasi road, which is one of the major and busy highways in the country
has just a portion of it dualised making it riskier to drive on. Much as it is
agreeable that most accidents are humanly caused, such as the one that happened
last Tuesday, some deficiencies in road engineering cannot be left out as the
causes.
Some two years ago Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called for an
inter-ministerial action to help curb the menace, which now is among the major
causes of death in the country.
The President's order to his Ministers of Interior,
Transport, Roads and Highways came at a time when the citizenry appeared
helpless as their precious lives continue to be in the unsafe hands of
dangerous, careless and in some cases mindless drivers some of whom are alleged
to be driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
One is not too sure of what came out of the interministerial
action and its effect, if any, in respect to safety on our roads. This is
because fatal accidents continue to occur every now and then and in greater
fatalities and numbers.
Ironically, over 75 per cent of these accidents, according
to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) of Ghana occurred on what it
describes as good roads but all single carriage roads where severe collisions
occur.
It stands to good reasoning that bad roads are not
necessarily the major contributing factor to motor accidents on roads in the
country.
One can cogently argue that over speeding is the major cause
as practically, it is extremely difficult for motorists to speed on 'bad roads'
but the question still remains that is head-on collision not much more fatal
than the rest of the accidents that occur on our roads?
Globally, some 1.3 million people die on the road every year
and up to about 50 million suffer injuries and Ghana through diverse means,
most of them avoidable, unfortunately, has been contributing to these figures.
Between 2016 and now, a total of about 8,598 individuals have lost their lives
to road accidents, if measures are not made to help halt the trend who knows
how many will die this and the subsequent years.
In 2020 for instance, alarming motor accident figures were
recorded. In that year, it will be recalled that a fatal accident claimed tens
of precious souls. "Thirty-five people, including women and children, were
killed when two buses collided". Reports had it that, over 30 souls were
burnt beyond recognition during the accident which happened in a town near
Kintampo in the Bono East Region.
In early January, 34 people died with many others injured in
an accident that happened at 12:15 am Tuesday, January 14, 2020, on the Cape
Coast- Takoradi Highway.
On the Asuboi stretch on the Accra-Kumasi, trunk road alone
the same year, about four accidents occurred all involving passenger-ferrying
vehicles in head-on collisions.
We need our roads to be dualised and policies to protect
passengers in commercially operated passenger-ferrying buses, minibuses and
trucks because these vehicles carry a higher risk of being involved in fatal
crashes.
Excessive vehicular speeds, inappropriate use of goods
vehicles for passenger transport, excessive loading which often breakdown on
the road posing danger of collision, and inadequate trauma care are the key
contributory risk factors to the high number of road traffic fatalities.
"Concerted efforts spanning education, engineering,
enforcement and trauma care are needed to stem the rise in fatal crashes in
Ghana".