MAKE OUR ROADS SAFE, PLEASE

SOME motorists in the country have reduced our roads to death traps in recent times, following the spate of fatal road accidents.
Not a single week passes without media reports of fatal or serious accidents on our roads. The situation appears alarming because the public knows of only reported cases.
The carnage on our roads has attracted presidential attention, with President J. E. A. Mills directing road transport unions to impress upon their members to bring the situation under control.
Research attributes many of the road accidents to human error. These accidents can be avoided if our drivers avoid speeding, unnecessary overtaking, wrongful parking and drink driving and undertake regular maintenance of their vehicles.
Sometimes it is believed that bad roads cause accidents, but recent revelations indicate that drivers who ply the bad roads tend to be more cautious on the steering wheels. This conclusion is not based on any research, but from media reports many recent fatal accidents occurred on first-class roads.
The time has come for the National Road Safety Commission and the transport unions to intensify the education of our motorists to observe road traffic regulations.
Many motorists and commuters do not observe these regulations and patriotic citizens who dare to correct motorists are called names or damned. The attitude of undisciplined drivers may reflect the general lawlessness in society.
Time and again, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies have been called upon to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages at lorry stations but these calls have not been heeded.
With drink driving identified as one of the causes of road accidents, it will be prudent to enforce the bye-laws on the sale of alcoholic beverages at lorry parks. The drivers who are notorious for drink driving can find alternative locations to indulge in this bad behaviour, but the move by the district assemblies will go a long way to reduce careless driving.
The DAILY GRAPHIC appeals to motorists not to attribute the spate of accidents to any extraneous factors but to the realities on the ground so that pragmatic and scientific interventions can be put in place to deal with the calamity.
We are in the throes of a national disaster, particularly in the wake of the revelations by the workers of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital that they are unable to cope with the volume of accident cases reported at the Accident Centre because of the increasing numbers and inadequate facilities.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on all road users to report the conduct of undisciplined drivers to the authorities for action to be taken against them, for if care is not taken, sooner than later our health facilities will not be able to cater for accident victims.
The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service can also maintain more order on the roads if it moves away from the routine motor checks to the strict enforcement of road traffic regulations.
The movement of people and goods is key to the stimulation of any economy, particularly during this period of global economic downturn. Let us build public opinion against careless driving and disregard for road traffic regulations by condemning undisciplined behaviour in order to restore safety on the roads.