The accident on the Nasia Bridge in the North East Region claimed over dozen lives and that is a worrying statistics.
Just when we are about to clap our hands for a lull in accidents, the kind of accident which took place in Nasia captures the headlines and sets us asking once more whether we really care about this avoidable loss of lives.
Time was it when we expressed apprehension that if the rate of accidents continued, such developments will cease to make the headlines.
We hope we do not get to that stage of degeneration in our management of the highway when fatalities become normal features.
In one commentary following one of the carnages on the country’s highways, we did state that the subject was becoming monotonous.
Thinking further however, we are unable to cease discussing a subject which keeps recurring no matter how much efforts are put in to stop the bloodletting.
So much investment has been made in educating commercial drivers, especially just so the rate of accidents will go down on our highways, all to no avail so far.
State agencies like the Ghana Road Safety Authority (GRSA), the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and even the Motor Transport and Traffic Department of the Ghana Police Service have all over the years been involved in assortment of efforts all geared to making our roads safe.
The Nasia accident, which informed this commentary, is said to have been caused by a fatigued driver. Another reason is that a cow crossed the path of the vehicle. Whatever it was, a human blunder was responsible for the accident.
Just how commercial drivers can be managed to show more responsibility on the highways remains an elusive issue for the road safety authorities in the country so far.
Will it be impossible to ensure that commercial drivers do a prescribed number of hours behind the steering wheels so they can take necessary rests?
Technology is available for ensuring that this is applied. The current arrangement by which drivers decide when to take a rest is not helpful. It is for this reason that we demand a regulation of sorts by the relevant state agencies to compel drivers to rest and not to continue to drive until after resting for prescribed number of hours.
Periodic re-education of commercial drivers who drive on the highways will be another option. The DVLA should consider arranging driver re-education in conjunction with the State Transport Corporation.                                                                                                                                                          It would be important also to suspend the licences of commercial drivers who investigations establish were responsible for the accident which their vehicles were involved in.
Something different must be brought to bear upon some of the avoidable accidents on our highways.
The authorities must get tough on the avoidable accidents otherwise the rather inappropriate business as usual module will continue to follow the fatalities with nobody punished in one form or the other.
For those who opt to become commercial drivers on the highways, DVLA must come up with proposals for the consideration of Parliament about who qualifies to join this class of professionals.
Persons who show complete misunderstanding of road signs should have no business plying our highways with passenger or cargo vehicles. Enough is enough.