The Upper East Regional Director of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has expressed a personal opinion that “bad roads” are rather what Ghana needs as an effective solution to its road traffic problems.
The NRSA boss observes that several motorists do not respect speed limits on good roads and, for this reason, wants authorities to rather consider constructing “bad roads” that would rather ‘kill’ speed but save lives.
“Left to me alone, I would have advised our authorities to be doing bad roads for our people. Not roads with potholes or manholes but roads on which you cannot speed, roads on which you have to just take your time, roads on which you will delay but will get to your destination. On the good roads, people end up taking their destination to the nearest mortuary. That is not the National Road Safety Authority’s view. That is my personal view.
“If I had my own way, I would tell the authorities to give us bad roads that would not allow vehicles to speed beyond speed limits. Looking at what is happening on our roads in terms of the speed-limit violations and the resultant accidents and fatalities, if the situation continues to be like that, then we would prefer bad roads that would lead people to their destinations alive to good roads that would take them to the nearest mortuary,” Abdulai Bawa Ghamsah told Media Without Borders.
Statistics made available to Media Without Borders by the NRSA show that road crashes resulted in 2,373 deaths and 15,690 injuries in Ghana in 2022. Some 14,960 crashes involving 25,754 vehicles were recorded that year.
From January to March, 2023, 544 people died and 3,697 were injured from 3,340 crashes recorded nationwide. At least 5,722 vehicles were involved in the crashes.
The NRSA says excessive speed is the foremost cause of road crashes in the country.
“Until road users and motorists change their mindset on our roads, bad roads are better than good roads,” the NRSA regional director added.
Source: Prosper Nyaaba/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
