LAST Sunday there was a fatal accident involving four vehicles at Kadia on the Tamale-Bolgatanga Road, claiming the lives of 35 people (see back page).
The accident was said to have occurred in the early hours of that day and the four vehicles collided while heading towards opposite directions on the beautifully asphalted road constructed not long ago.
The Tamale-Bolgatanga Road is such a good road that this kind of accident should not occur on it.
Because of the nature of the road — smooth and not too many bends — drivers tend to drive at top speed, doing needless and careless overtaking.
Because drivers, especially commercial drivers, disregard the basic rule of overtaking — to watch and be sure no vehicle is approaching before overtaking — they cause unnecessary fatalities on our roads.
The Northern Regional Unit Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nana Kumi attributed the immediate cause of the accident to wrongful overtaking on the part of one of the drivers involved.
Most of the fatal accidents that occurred in the last year were either caused by wrongful overtaking or wrongful parking.
According to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), road accidents, apart from claiming human lives and leaving others injured, cost the nation a collossal $165 million every year, which represents 1.6 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This cost ranges from medcal cost, property damaged, human cost, administrative cost and lost output.
This huge cost to the nation is brought about by drivers who do not have education or did not attend driving schools to learn how to drive.
From NRSC statistics, drivers contribute about 93 per cent to road accidents in the country.
What is even more frightening is that about 85 per cent of drivers on our roads have not attended any driving school and out of these, 82.2 per cent have taught others how to drive.
The danger is that these drivers do not know road signs and traffic regulations, hence the spate of fatal accidents on our roads.
To stamp out these fatal and neeedless accidents on our roads, some drastic measures should be instituted.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has responsibility for the training, testing, licensing and regulation of driver training and development in the country but the organisation lacks the capacity to effectively carry out these responsibilities.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that it is about time we took a critical look at that organisation, resource it and build the capacity of its staff to carry out their functions effectively.
If we do not have licensing laws that state where and when alcoholic drinks can be sold, then it is about time our Parliament enacted such laws to regulate the sale of alcoholic drinks at our lorry parks.
It is an open secret that most of our commercial drivers take a shot of akpeteshie (local gin) and other alcoholic drinks before they hit the road.
Most of our lorry parks or stations are strewn with drinking spots and this is not good because the drivers are tempted to drink before they embark on their journeys.
By all means road accidents must be stopped and we think that the time to do so is now. Let us do something about it.
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