The road accident menace (Part 1),

IT probably took about 45 seconds. Panic struck as the articulated cargo truck in front of him drove into the bush. His heart raced to his sleeves as he tried to manoeuvre his way from the speeding Yutong bus heading towards him. Then boooooooooooom! It happened. Seconds later, his body flew out of the car and everything else was darkness…

Samuel Kwaku Konadu had no idea that day was going to be his last day on earth. The late 42-year-old driver of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) left Accra on Friday night dressed in the company’s shirt for the fun games scheduled for the next day.

His colleagues recall that he even had his soccer boots by his side. He had pledged to be part of the five-aside soccer game the next day to display the skills he had confined behind the wheels.

But that was not to be. According to an eye witness account, the driver of the cargo truck which was in front of the Graphic vehicle had to swerve to avoid the on-coming Yutong which was speeding to overtake a number of vehicles from the other direction and had crossed to his lane.

In the process, the truck fell sideways into the bush and the Graphic van behind him crashed into the Yutong bus while the mini bus also went into the bush.

Konadu’s death is just a tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of accidents on our roads are caused by the recklessness of drivers, especially on well asphalted roads that have been turned into death traps.

The carelessness of our drivers is not limited to good roads; almost every road in the country poses a risk to travellers. Admittedly, the terrible nature of some of the roads (pot hole-filled and undulating terrains) are also responsible for the bloodshed.

The situation is so bad that hardly a week flies past without reports of bloodshed on our roads being reported.

It is common knowledge that the most recurrent causes of accidents on our roads include speeding, wrongful overtaking, leaving broken down vehicles on the road, the use of communication devices while driving and several other distractions.

The situation is aptly captured by a worried motorists, Joyce Aidoo—a mother of two young children—who goes through life with what she calls a very healthy circumspection of Accra roads and motorists.

"The joys of wide roads also come with the trappings of speed maniacs. More so in our blood-pressure operated capital, with taxis and ‘trotros’ being driven like missiles from a rocket! As if that is not enough, we have educated people racing to work unmindful of any traffic regulations.”

“The worst is when traffic lights go off; the roads become a free for all… survival of the fastest," she said.

"If all this is not worrying enough, I have noticed time and again a trend among parents to find innovative ways to flirt with danger while driving their children around. Children sitting in the front passenger seat or even worse on the driver's lap are the scariest and yet the most common situations," points out Ms Aidoo.

Technology

The increasing sophistication of cars is also not helping the road accident situation. Technology giants like Intel and Google are gradually stepping up their technological revolution and turning their devotion from the desktop to the dashboard. The aim of these companies is simple—to redirect the power of the PC to the car.

The marriage between the auto makers and their counterparts in the technology business see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices---infotainment systems.

The danger, according to Mr Noble Appiah, the Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), is that drivers are increasingly taking their eyes off the road, even if for a few seconds.

He said while the country could not control what the auto makers put on the dash board, it could encourage drivers to keep their eyes on the road.

“The only way out is to encourage proficiency training among our drivers and at the same time raise awareness of the issue,” he stated.

Aside the loss of productive human resource (aged between 16 and 55 years), statistics from the NRSC show that the drain on the national purse from road accident is enormous. Ghana loses about GH¢165 million and that is about 1.6 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP); the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period.



The statistics

Statistics on the massacre on our roads is rather gory. According to NRSC figures, 21,265 lives were lost on the country’s roads between 2001 and 2011; that is an average of six people perishing on our roads daily.

The break down indicates that while 1660 died in 2001, 2002 recorded 1665. The figure went up to 1718 in 2003 and further shot up to 2185 in 2004. In 2005, it slumped to 1778 only jump to 1856 in 2006. 2007 also went up to 2043 and came down to 1938 in 2008. Sadly, 2009 recorded the highest death toll in the 10 years as 2237 people perished. The figure came down to 1987 in 2010 only to reach 2199 in 2011.

Within the period under the review, 8930 people sustained various degrees of injuries. In 2001, the record was 757; 681 in 2002; 724 in 2003; 869 in 2004; 733 in 2005 and 770 in 2006. The figure went up to 880 in 2007 and 885 in 2008, with the highest injuries in the 10-year period occurring in 2009, which was 938 and a sustained reduction in 2010 and 2011, which was 853 and 840, respectively.

While the country grapples with a solution to the accidents, a phenomenon that is also on the increase is pedestrian knock-downs. Within the 10-year period, 58,446 people were knocked down.

From 521 pedestrian knock-downs in 2001, by 2011, 5359 people were victims of knock-downs. While in 2002, it was 5741, 2003 went up to 5960, further going up to 6220 in 2004. In 2005, it was 5138; 5882 in 2006; 6287 in 2007; 5287 in 2008; 5809 in 2009 and 6242 in 2010.

The hot spots

Across the country, certain roads have become synonymous with accidents. Disrespect for simple road regulations by both motorists and pedestrians means that the lives of road users are always on the line.

Take the George Bush Highway (N1) for example. Ghanaians heaved a sigh of relief when it was completed because the long traffic on that road, particularly moving to and from the western part of Accra, would end.

But the joy that came with the completion of the project was short-lived when the road became a snare, claiming the lives of drivers and pedestrians who decided to cross the road at unauthorised places.

That is not all. Travellers on the Accra-Tema Motorway and the Apedwa portion of the Nsawam-Suhum road are all endangered in one way or the other.

The NRSC has been able to identify quite a number of locations across the country that are notorious for road accidents.

In the Northern Region, Savacem Junction/Nurses Quarters in Buipe; Heads Up Guest House, Nansoma Guest House, VRA Staff Bungalow, Gushie Mosque, Tamale Airport Junction, Forestry Divisional Office, MoFA Junction and BOST 2nd Junction roads have all be been marked as accident prone.