In short that is the painful truth; I can’t make it clearer than with this headline.
The traffic situation in Ghana is dangerous because we are very bad drivers and road users.
All die be die, is very relevant in Ghana when it comes to our traffic situation. And we are really dying by the hundreds.
Before you start complaining and defending Ghana’s road users (and abusers) let me compare Ghana to the country I was born in, The Netherlands.
In the Netherlands (NL), 48 out of 100 people own a vehicle.
In Ghana (GH), 8 out of 100 people own a vehicle.
In the Netherlands, 680 out of a population of 17,000,000 died of a traffic related incident.
In Ghana, 2,285 out of a population of 31,000,000 died as a result of a traffic related incident.
To be able to compare these figures to each other the percentages are as follows:
In NL 0.0004 % of the population die as a result of a traffic accident.
In GH 0.0007 % of the population die as a result of a traffic accident.
You might say; ok we are a developing country and that’s not even double of the Netherlands. So I will also give the percentages in comparison to the number of vehicles on the road in NL and GH.
In NL, vehicle ownership and the number of vehicles on the road are 6 times higher than in GH.
So if we multiply the percentages of deaths by factor 6 you will see the real tragedy behind these figures: NL 0.0004 %, Ghana 0.0042 %, this shows that the risk of dying as a consequence of a traffic incident in Ghana over 10 times higher than in the Netherlands.
Joy FM and other TV and radio stations and all kinds of Governmental and other institutions have started discussions on road safety but all have failed, for political or cultural reasons to recognize and name the real reasons of their failures to curb the continuing and growing number of fatalities in traffic.
The first thing we need to do is to publicly recognize and name the problem, just like addicts do at Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) and other comparable institutions, they make every patient state: I am an alcoholic before they start further therapy and discussions.
So let’s all admit the following:
We are a nation of undisciplined people. We don’t respect laws, including traffic laws.
Our police don’t enforce our laws; our politicians don’t insist on enforcement of our laws.
Only after admitting all this we can tackle this menace on society.
Last week I saw a street hawker selling pure water on TV who lost her arm and she was warning drivers to be careful, another hawker was given time to state that a car hit here and her baby disappeared under the car and she was thrown aside.
Why didn’t anybody say you are supposed to be there in the first place?
This shows exactly what the problem is.
I drive regularly in my car between Aburi and Accra and I notice exactly what everybody sees and what every police officer should avoid and where he should step in:
Street hawkers and beggars at every traffic light. There is a law that forbids this.
Begging children from Adenta Barrier to Madina, Ghana Standard Board, Polo Club Junction, Airport Junction, 37 hospital etc. etc. We have laws which can be used to remove them and even arrest the parents for exploiting them and not sending them to school.
At every roundabout car users fight themselves in the flow of traffic, the same at every tollbooth, whilst we have priority laws in our traffic laws.
Motor bike users not stopping at traffic lights, not wearing helmets, and with their reverse mirrors removed, they should be arrested on the spot based on our laws.
Speeding limits are hardly checked at all, safety regulations on Trotro and taxes are hardly checked unless for their annual renewal date. We have laws which they need to comply with.
Shops and market stalls half on the road, there are laws against that.
Trotro loading on the road, taxi parking at bus stops, once again there are laws against that.
Drivers repairing cars in the middle of the road, instead of first pushing their vehicle to safety at the side of the road.
It’s not that difficult if our police actively enforce our laws. I remember years ago, a motorcade police officer who stood every day just after the Labadi hotel bridge stopping every car changing lanes whilst waiting in traffic. And it worked.
Today, our police only engage in traffic activities when they are ordered to specifically engage on a duty that they and street users will forget about tomorrow. The rest of the week they are mainly involved in extra income generating activities.
Today we catch all Okada riders, and tomorrow many police officers jump back at the back of an Okada rider as usual.
Today we check insurance papers on every car, and tomorrow we don’t care anymore.
Today we are at Madina enforcing all pedestrians to use the overhead bridge, tomorrow is Sunday so nobody cares, just like Monday the police don’t return.
I love my country and my people, but to be fair: we are a bunch of indisciplined people.
Who love freedom so much that we don’t accept any law, rule or regulation.
The past few weeks many people followed the discussion on freedom of hairstyles in schools, and Rasta hair specifically. People of the Ghana Education Service came out with a statement on discipline and standards in schools. To them especially I would like to state: you failed on all fronts putting discipline in pupils except for the outside of pupils.
Politicians should start forgetting about the next elections. You are not sitting in parliament, part of government of council to be able to sit there after four years again. You are there to do the best for your nation and population.
If roads need to be cleared on behalf of road safety and to protect lives of mostly innocent people that should be your first choice.
I am also not the most disciplined person in the world, and just like many other Ghanaians I love my freedom, but even for me our indiscipline is becoming too much. The most annoying thing these days, if you talk you are the one getting insulted by the abusers of our laws.
Nico van Staalduinen,
Just a concerned Ghanaian