Central Press Newspaper: MOTOR ACCIDENT ONE OF THE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN C/R

By Axel Patsch

When passing Pedu Junction at the Accra-Takoradi-Highway, drivers can see a huge traffic sign that shows the numbers of injuries and deaths caused by traffic accidents. The scary thing is, that the numbers from 2009 have increased compared to the numbers of 2008. Reason enough for Central Press to speak with the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) about the reasons and possible solutions.

For a European visitor in Ghana it looks like there are no traffic regulations. Hundreds of Taxis driving zig-zag through the narrow streets of Cape Coast, permanently honking to either pick-up passengers, warn pedestrians or just make sure that the car in front does not change lanes. On an intersection it seems to be a mixture between first come, first go and people interacting by gestures.

While within city limits traffic is moving rather slowly it gets worse when travelling on the intercoastal highway that connects Accra, Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi before going to Cote d'Ivoire. When having a slow moving vehicle in front, drivers seem to be challenged to overtake it by any chance. No matter if they drive a 200 HP 4x4 or an overloaded Tro-Tro with 15 passengers in it. And they obviously don't care if there is a twenty-car-queue behing the slow truck or if they are going uphill or through a turn where they don't see what is coming from the opposite direction. And if so, they seem to hope that somebody lets them in again or that the other guys will give way to avoid a collision, even if they have to drive on the shoulder or through the gravel next to the roads. And although you oftentimes see carwrecks next to the streets which should be considered as warning memorials, but drivers don't seem to care. They rather seem to rely on the help of god which might be the reason why many of them have stickers saying „Jesus loves you“ or similar on their rear windows.

The danger increases during the night. While during the day you can see the other vehicles moving on the streets, during the night some of them are basically invisible due to broken lights. And with the sometimes really bad road conditions another potential danger comes into play.

Regarding to NRSC, the group with the highest number of road fatilies are Pedestrians (42%) which is not surprising, because they are the weekest part when colliding with a car and in the dark they are hard to be seen. The group with the second highest number are bus passengers (23%), which is also understandable when you see the critically conditioned, overloaded Tro-Tros and their young drivers. When a Tro-Tro gets involved in an accident that means that there are always 10 – 15 people involved.

Central Press spoke with Linda Affotey-Annang of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) how safety could be improved to decrease the number of accidents. NRSC has been established in 1999 as a part of the Ghanaian Ministry of Transportation. Their vision is to make Ghana's road transportation system the safest in entire Africa. In the year 2000 the fatility rate was 36 per 10,000 vehicles. While in 2008 it has decreased to 19, the long term goal for 2015 is a single digit.

Linda says that the human errors are reason number one for the amount of accidents. Fatigue, DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol), speeding and wrong overtaking, just to name a few. The same is for pedestrians: crossing streets without caution, jay-walking or walking the wrong direction.

Super Intendent Paul Aduhene of the Cape Coast MTTU agrees on this by saying that drivers only have their own mind in business and seem to think that the rules are only for the others. People treat the police as a foreign entity and just try to avoid them.. Aduhene also states that not enoguh police are present to cover the entire Central Region. He wishes to have a moving patrol for traffic enforcement, too. Everybody knows the check points along the roads, so drivers will slow down and when get past the, even when they are still in sight of the police, they start speeding again. With a moving patrol, equipped with a video camera, they could enforce traffic in different areas and forward the information to the next check point where the reckless drivers could be stopped. With the knowledge, that such an „invisible“ patrol is moving around, people would also be more careful not to get caught and would reduce speed. DUI is, regarding to Aduhene, not the biggest issue although there are no reliable stats because there is only one alco-meter in the entire Central region.

While traffic enforcement is the main task of the MTTU, Linda Affotey-Annang of the NRSC told Central Press about other activities to make Ghana's roads safer, like Engineering (road maintenance) or Emergency. But the most important part is the education. Not only in driving schools but also in schools and in the public life of the people. „We have to change the people's minds, they have to understand that they are not only risking their own lifes but also endanger other people's lifes“ both Affotey-Annang and Aduhene agree on.

	2009	2010
no. of accidents	811	1189
no. of vehicles involved	1067	1860
no. of fatal accidents	110	141
no. of killed people	167	141
no. of injured people	812	998

	2010 (4th quarter)	2011 (1st quarter)
no. of accidents	274	263
no. of vehicles involved	348	342
no. of fatal accidents	28	35
no. of killed people	46	71
no. of injured people	289	262
no. of pedestrians knocked down	109	78