Ghana has and continues to lose most of its resourceful citizens through road accidents.
These road carnages in most cases are those that could be avoided if certain protocols were adhered to. Drunk-driving, inappropriate overtaking, overspeeding, poor eye sight of drivers, fatigue among others have over the years been attributed to the huge tally of accident related deaths on our roads.
Yet, much has not been done in respect of reversing the trend in order to make road accidents an expensive venture for reckless drivers.
The *GHANAIAN PUBLISHER* finds news that a total of 517 persons died through road accidents between January and February this year very staggering.
According to the Ghana Police Service the figure is a significant increase in the 393 cases recorded in the same period last year.
With particular reference to records from the police, in all, 2, 560 road accident cases have been reported between the past two months involving 1, 581 commercial vehicles, 974 motorcycles with 2, 766 pedestrian knockdowns.
Of the total figure of road deaths recorded in the past two months, Ashanti Region recorded the highest with 108 deaths, followed by Eastern Region with 91 deaths, and Greater Accra Region with 89 deaths while North East Region recorded the lowest number of deaths with two deaths.
According to the statistics released by the Service, the major accidents hotspots are on Buipe-Tamale road, Akyem Asafo, between the Accra-Tema motorway, Bolga-Navrongo road, as well as Kyekyewere and Mankessim in the Central Region.
As though that is not enough, in March a number of road accident casualties have been reported.
The most recent one occurred on Friday on the outskirts of Sawla, where a Wa-Kumasi bound Sprinter Benz bus with registration number AS 3022-15 somersaulted and crashed into a nearby bush on the Sawla-Tuna-Kaiba District of the Savannah Region.This incident claimed 8 lives and left 22 others in critical condition.
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The paper can only add its voice to calls in the media to help make our roads a safer place even as Easter is fast approaching with its attendant festivities.
Churches, families, organizations and other social groups will be criss-crossing the country.
The *GHANAIAN PUBLISHER* urges the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Roads Safety Authority and other allied organizations to step up the fight against road accidents in the country.
The police specifically must not only give the figures but must be seen to be cracking the whip on errant drivers to save innocent lives .
Until this is done, we would continue to wonder whether Ghana’s roads is a slaughter House.
Editorial
