Ghana: When Road Accidents Sweep Away Country’s Resources

Anthony Kwaku Amoah

21 June 2011

analysis

Wikipedia free encyclopedia says traffic collision, also known as traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic Collision (RTC) or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris or other stationary obstructions, such as a tree or utility pole, stating that “Traffic collisions may result in injury, death and property damage”.

Public Agenda (January 22, 2006) published statistics released by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), revealing that a total of 1,283 people died through road accidents over the past year, involving 17,877 vehicles with 7,505 suffering various degrees of injuries, indicating that “Out of the total number of deaths, Ashanti Region alone recorded the highest of 408 deaths, making the region the most dangerous.

The Greater Accra Region came second with 157 deaths, Central Region 148; Eastern Region 130; Volta Region 113; Tema Metropolis 99; Western Region 92; Northern Region 92; Brong Ahafo Region 83; Upper East and Western Regions come in that order, as regions with less deaths”.

Just about a couple of weeks into 2009, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) disclosed to the general public that road accidents, apart from claiming human lives and leaving others injured, cost the nation US$165 mil ­lion, representing 1.6 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), every year.

Dr. Kobina Kennedy Arthur, in his feature entitled, ‘Perishing on the road’ (Thursday, March 26, 2009) lamented that “Many of our prominent politicians have been involved in accidents in our recent history. Former Presidents Rawlings and Kufuor have both been involved in accidents. So has Nana Akufo-Addo. It took the life of Hon. Achuliwor of blessed memory”.

A GNA report published in the Ghana Business News (Friday, April 10, 2009) presented the Ashanti Regional Manager of the Road Safety Commission, Mr. Kwaku Oware-Boateng as saying that more than 1,600 people are killed annually through road traffic accidents and continue to reveal that 43 percent of the fatalities involved pedestrians, with about 23 percent representing children below the age of 16 years.

ROAD CRASH & MATERNAL MORTALITY

A disclosure made by medical workers to IRIN (June 12, 2009 in Accra), and presented in a report titled ‘Ghana: Road crash casualties hit maternal health efforts’, has it that doctors in Ghana have had to halt special prenatal home visits, part of an initiative to beat high maternal mortality, because road crash casualties are taking up so much of their time and scarce resources.

According to doctors at the Winneba Government Hospital, as reported by IRIN (June 12, 2009), over 100 people died on one 15-kilometre stretch of road between the capital Accra and Winneba to the west, from March to April of 2009.

The Deputy Director of the Ghana Health Service, Mr. George Amofa is on record to have once revealed in 2009 that road accidents are among the top causes of death in Ghana, with malaria, diarrhea and respiratory diseases, adding “Road accidents kill more Ghanaians annually than typhoid fever, pregnancy-related complications, and malaria in pregnancy, diabetes or rheumatism”.

Dozens of people have been reported to have either lost their lives or heavily injured through fatal road accidents. Ordinary citizens, academicians, professionals, politicians, sportsmen and women, musicians, men of God, traditional rulers, diplomats, heads of states, etc. have suffered in the hands of road accidents, with some losing their lives and a countless number getting injured or maimed.

In order not to bring back too much tears onto the eyes of relatives, friends and sympathizers, I could only mention a few individuals that recently lost their lives through road accidents.

Among those I could easily recollect are the three Urologists of the Korle-Bu Hospital, a famous Ghanaian actor -Kwame Owusu-Ansah, a prominent musician, Terry Bonchaka and the gory accident that occurred in 2009 leading to the death of Rev. Eastwood Anaba’s children and a member of his church, along the Tamale-Bolgatanga highway.

Just recently, the majority leader in Parliament, Mr. Cletus Avoka and the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Mahama Ayariga were also involved in two separate road accidents, such that if it had not been the divine intervention of God, the unexpected would have happened.

The above reports are really sad and disturbing and, therefore, call for immediate steps to halt the trend in order to save lives and to be able to rake in adequate capital resources necessary for developing critical areas of our economy.

MULTIPLICITY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC MISHAPS

In fact, Ghana is saddled with a multiplicity of socio-economic mishaps that actually cripple the nation’s efforts at providing adequate social amenities, such as hospitals, roads, markets, electricity, potable drinking water and schools for its teeming citizens.

But the question that one may ask is for how long can we continue to spend a chunk of the limited resources at our disposal, in trying to solve those developmental challenges, including avoidable accidents on the road?

I should think that the way I feel is the same way Omar Graham-Mensa also felt, when he queried in his opinion article titled -‘The Recent Road Deaths- we are angry’, published in The Ghanaian Chronicle (September 22, 2005) that “Why must we not be angry when death walks free on our nation’s road networks while everybody seems to stand aside and look?

How many more Suzie Willamses and Hon. Osei Kwekus do we have to sacrifice to the gods of the asphalt network, before we begin to take the situation into hand?” It is, therefore, important for us to come together as a people and as a government to deliberate on effective and efficient ways of checking the spate of road accidents that has currently enveloped the entire country, killing most innocent and dedicated assets of our country and maiming some, while sending horrendous grief and pain to families of victims and also increasing the number of widows, widowers and orphans in the country.

FOUR PEOPLE KILLED DAILY

Fresh statistics have it that on a daily basis, an average of about four people are often killed with many seriously injured through road accidents. A couple of weeks ago, the nation was hit with a gory report of the death of twenty-seven (27) persons, including five children aged below 10 years on the Techiman-Kintampo highway.

We have also been made to understand that aside the negative impacts that road accidents have on their victims, they also put pressure on public health, prevent direct foreign invest ­ments and tourism, and also dent the nation’s international image.

Available statistics presented Ghana in 2001 as the second highest road traffic accident-prone nation, among six West African countries, with about 73 deaths per 1000 accidents -a picture that could have negative impact on Ghana’s international image, which consequently can affect the nation’s direct foreign investment opportunities and tourism.

I have not yet forgotten the statement made by Dr. Dodi Abdallah of Winneba Government Hospital to IRIN in June 2009 that “The situation (referring to the spate of road accidents) is putting unbearable pressure on the health system, depriving us of resources that would have been channeled into dealing with other pressing health challenges”.

CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENT

On what exactly causes road accidents in the country, Dr. Stephen Ocansey of UCC/ Central Regional Hospital in the Today newspaper (Monday, May 23, 2011), had this reminder to give: “The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has prescribed well over twenty causes of road traffic accidents in Ghana among which are excessive speed, inattention or lack of judgment of drivers, carelessness, improper overtaking, inexperience, intoxication, recklessness and mechanical defects.

“Other factors are overloading, defective and dazzling lights, skid and road surface defect, obstruction, level crossing, boarding or alighting from motion vehicle and uncontrolled animals. Ostensibly other contributing causes are lack of proper enforcement of road safety regulations, corruptions, use of mobile phones while driving and not wearing seat belts”.

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