Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday said road safety should be a national priority with simple measures like provision of traffic lights and embankment on the road to save hundreds of lives.
According to them, booming car ownership has not been matched by safety measures and awareness, while many road users also refuse to respect the rules that matter on the road, thereby causing unnecessary accidents.
Contributing to a statement made by the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, to condole victims of the Nsawam Mobil Junction on Monday, First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Wusu, said the “real challenge is our refusal to respect every rule that matters on the road. Of course, we can always blame somebody else because the police are not enforcing the law.”
“We must admit also that permitting markets on all the roads, whether highway or urban road, is a major risk factor,” he noted.
Mr. Osei-Wusu, popularly known as Joe Wise, said, “Every location where there is a speed ramp, a market develops there. Indeed, to the extent that when the minister stopped the road tolls, some people said their markets had been taken so they were going to demonstrate.”
He asserted that a market is right behind the location where the accident occurred, adding, “They have scaled over from the market and they prefer to be by the roadside.”
“I think that if we choose to permit markets by the roadside, we should with embankment such that, in the event of a careless driver going off the road or even a brake failure, the embankment will hold the vehicle from crossing over to where the market is,” he suggested.
Statement
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said the Nsawam Mobil Junction accident had brought “gloom to the constituency and wrung painful outcry from my constituents,” and indicated that the accident resulted in the death of “unlucky persons and the destruction to properties and wares of those in the area at the time of occurrence.”
According to him, a total of five people died from the accident, explaining that four of them died on the spot, while the fifth victim passed on shortly upon arrival at the Nsawam Government Hospital, which is situated barely one kilometer from the scene.
The NPP MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri said the incident had evoked memories of the explosion disaster which occurred some seven years ago at Peabo where hundreds of households were affected and one life lost.
He commended the Police Commander and his team from the MTTD, the Fire Service Commander and his officers, as well as the NADMO officials for their timely response to the accident.
He called for installation of traffic lights at the place, saying “the very junction is typically chaotic, since no traffic lights are present to control the flow of vehicles. This is simply unsafe and unacceptable.”
Concern
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said stopping the carnage on roads should be the concern of Ghanaians, intimating that the country has not accepted avoidable deaths as part of its workings.
He called on the police to deal with issues of overloading, defective lights of vehicles and reckless driving on the road, while calling for the governing board of the National Road Safety Authority to be put in place.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House