Road safety

By Kofi Akordor
THE figures are staggering and for a country with barely one million registered vehicles, we need to sit up. According to the records of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), an average of six people die daily through road accidents. This makes road accidents one of the major causes of death in the country.
Just last Saturday, 26 people died on the spot when two vehicles, a Metro Mass Transit bus and a Benz passenger bus, collided at Pong-Tamale in the Northern Region. Many others were taken to hospital in critical condition so it will not be surprising if the death figure goes up.
A preliminary assessment indicated that the accident was caused by the recklessness of one of the drivers. That is the naked truth of our situation; the fact that most of the road accidents are caused through human error. This has been identified as speeding, wrong overtaking, driving under the influence of alcohol and sheer disregard for traffic regulations.
While it seems we all know the problem, the solution is still eluding us because those who are the targets of all road safety education – the drivers- are not interested.
If you remove the human factor, there are other factors such as broken-down vehicles which are left unattended to, the nature of the roads and the response to emergency situations which all contribute to casualty figures in the event of accidents.
It is agreed that the government has the primary responsibility to protect its citizens and road safety is not an exception. That is why more is expected from agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the National Road Safety Commission to ensure safety on our roads.
Ideally, one would have wished that the state is able to fully resource and adequately equip these agencies so that they can effectively deliver their mandate. Unfortunately, we are not in good times and so it is only fair that the state opens its doors to private participation in road safety.
Kits such as speed guns to check speeding on the highways and breath analysers to check the alcohol level of drivers are in limited supply if they are available at all. Moreover that police do not have towing vehicles to remove broken-down vehicles from the roads or ambulances to convey injured accident victims to medical facilities for treatment.
It is in the spirit of public-private partnership that the government is collaborating with a new company, Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL). RSMSL is set to do all the things that the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other road safety agencies are supposed to do but are unable to do, for obvious reasons.
This is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company which specialises in road safety management through the use of electronic traffic, security and safety solutions to counter the threats of security and provide around-the-clock surveillance on the road.
Reliance on MTTU personnel to enforce road traffic regulations is not yielding the needed results and it is becoming increasingly clear that if we are to get some semblance of sanity on the roads, we need to move one step ahead. So RSMSL is of the belief that with the application of technology-driven systems in road traffic management, the rate at which road accidents occur on our roads can be reduced to the barest minimum.
On that basis, RSMSL is going to provide a broad array of road safety services on a build-operate-and-transfer basis under a public-private partnership scheme.
These include financing the supply, installation, operation and maintenance of a network of traffic cameras to check excessive speeding on the roads and apprehend offending motorists; financing the building, operation and maintenance of vehicle recovery and towing service on the highways for rapid removal and recovery of accident or broken-down vehicles on the road and financing and building of rest stops on all major roads in collaboration with the relevant metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
The idea is to check driver fatigue which is another major contributory factor to accidents, especially those involving haulage trucks. These rest stops will also provide other services including quick meals and refreshment in a very relaxed and friendly environment.
RSMSL will also acquire and operate ambulances to ensure the provision of a consistent and reliable ambulance services at vantage points on the country’s major roads. RSMSL is not only about road safety. It is also an enterprise which promises to offer avenues for employment.
The project is envisaged to provide an initial employment for about 1,000 Ghanaians: those who will man the communication centres along the major roads, the central collation and response centres in the various regional capitals, recovery truck drivers and mates, technicians and other ancillary workers.
On the drawing board, this is no doubt a major enterprise which when planted on the ground could bring a lot of improvement in road safety in the country. The smooth take off of these projects presents the country with opportunities for significant development and transfer of skills in technology applications to road safety and security management and we only hope that the project moves from the dream stage to full implementation.
The carnage on our roads is becoming a nightmare and any effort that would stem the tide must be encouraged and supported by every well-meaning Ghanaian and that is why RSMSL, I believe, needs a fertile soil on which to plant its vision and mission.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com