Yesterday’s unfortunate accident that occurred on the Takoradi- Cape Coast highway, which claimed the lives of 15 people, has once again brought to the fore the need for the country to urgently put up measures that will end these tragedies on the nation’s highways.
The accident involved a tipper truck and a Ford bus with registration number GW 5628-21, which had onboard, some Ghanaians and Chinese nationals travelling from Tarkwa.
According to eye witness report, the tipper truck did a wrongful overtaking. Upon realising the careless driving on the part of his counterpart, the driver of the Ford vehicle stopped to make way for the truck.
But the truck driver lost control of his vehicle as a result of a tyre burst during the process. The tipper truck then fell on the Ford and caught fire.
The carnage on our roads has become a recurring decimal. President Akufo-Addo, speaking at the Kofi Annan Road Safety Award ceremony in Accra last week Wednesday, said we can no longer overlook pedestrians and cyclists casualties particularly, on roads in urban areas.
He urged African Governments to treat roads accidents as a serious fatal issue and adopt practical measures to deal with them.
No doubt the cause of this accident is wrongful overtaking. Other causes of accidents on our roads include over-speeding, and general negligence of safety and driving rules.
The rise of social media and platforms has also been fingered as one of the reasons for deaths on the highways.
Many road users have developed the habit of using their mobile phone while driving, either to make and take calls and text messages, or to browse the internet, thereby endangering not only their lives, but those of others.
They ignore the advisory that they should either pack at a roadside to use their phones if it is urgent, or to ignore their phones altogether until they get to their destinations.
The poor state of roads in the country does not help matters. Many vehicular crashes are traceable to them.
As a newspaper, we urge the government at all levels to begin to take this ugly malaise seriously. The nation’s roads should be fixed and maintained regularly.
The daily loss of lives on our roads are assuming alarming rate.
