There is an indisputable correlation between indiscipline and the rising statistics of fatalities on our highways.
Often clothed ‘human error’ the factors accounting for highway accidents in the country are mere acts of indiscipline occasioned by recklessness.
A few days ago an MP and others were arrested by a Police Service now determined more than ever before, to deal a blow to the spate of indiscipline which is claiming lives in the country.
We are witnesses to the rampant misuse of sirens by unruly Toyota Landcruiser drivers as they seek passage through traffic gridlocks.
In one such acts of indiscipline a 29-year-old man was arrested upon the orders of the IGP who witnessed the driver driving recklessly and endangering the lives of other road users.
Unless we allow the Police to work without interference from persons who erroneously think that because of the positions they hold they are above the law, we shall continue to record such worrying statistics of carnage on our highways.
We shall continue to record bloody occurrences on our highways when the enforcement regime is not tightened to ensure compliance with existing road traffic regulations. We should also consider stop fatigued driving and make it mandatory for long distance vehicles to have two drivers.
On Tuesday the country woke up to yet again a pre-Yuletide highway carnage.
It was an accident whose cause was not difficult for the Police to determine. For a driver who had driven all the way from Accra towards Wa in the Upper West Region and getting close to his final destination, fatigue was what he suffered and in the event causing the destruction of nine lives.
Over-speeding and fatigue on the part of the driver could have jointly caused the death of the nine persons. As the remains of the dead lay in the bucket of a police pickup we could not help but ask ‘why oh, why?’ after an accident a few weeks earlier prompted questions about whether that was going to be the last road incident before Xmas. They were wrong as the country records yet another highway carnage.
Isn’t it instructive that highway accidents have overtaken COVID-19 deaths?  It is ironic that COVID-19 has attracted more commentaries and attention than the reckless and avoidable accidents on our highways.
Recently the IGP engaged with stakeholders in the transport sector as a means of stopping accidents.
The various interventions have failed to stop road carnages; robust response is required under the circumstances.
The two drivers per bus for long distance trips policy which has been proposed in recent times should as a matter of exigency be brought to the front burner.
Police officers on highway barrier duties should be tooled with communication gadgets to enforce anti-accident regulations such as not driving for more than a certain number of hours without taking a rest.
Drivers should be sanctioned for accidents in which their errors are responsible. While some should have their licences suspended others should be banned for life from driving commercial vehicles on our highways.