From now till the first week of 2022, a lot of Ghanaians will be hitting the road, as well as the use of other means of transport to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with loved-ones across the 16 regions of the country.
There is probably no other time of the year that has so many people travelling, either by road, air, sea, or rail.
But for the majority of Ghanaians, traveling by road is the only option available to them because of cost and proximity. This leaves them at the mercy of bad roads, unlicensed drivers with poor driving skills and a lot of traffic.
For the National Road Safety Commission and The Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD), this should be the busiest time of the year for them.
Every year, they embark on an awareness campaign to keep travelers safe during the yuletide, and yet after all is said and done;the causality rate surpasses that of the previous year.
It goes without saying that the increase in traffic could put pressure and also possibly lead to a collapse of critical infrastructure as is known to happen in recent times.
It is important to stress, in our opinion, that other than bad roads, failing infrastructure and poor attitude of drivers to safety, criminals, petty thieves and even kidnappers will likely be targeting travelers.
Men of the underworld will also be looking for their New Year money at the expense of hardworking Ghanaians who are heading to their hometowns for the holiday season.
We therefore call on the security agencies, particularly the Ghana Police Service, to mobilise and make it difficult for criminals to run riot during the festive period.
The police already know the hot spots. There should keep an eagle eye at those places to avert the activities of the criminals, who will want to ruin the yuletide of law-abiding citizens.
