Removing abandoned cars from our roads will prevent accidents
Business Development Manager at the Road Safety Management Services Ltd, Chief Ocran Turkson, has urged the various authorities to focus on removing abandoned vehicles on roads if they want to curb road accidents.
He lamented that policymakers are not tackling the core issue of road accidents in the country. He observed that mostly when there is a stakeholder deliberation on how to reduce road accidents, the focus is always on issues that cannot be tackled when those that can be solved are often ignored.
One of such problems he identified was the abandoned cars on roads which he believes is the contributor of road accidents.
During the Happy Development Dialogue on Happy 98.9FM, the Business Development Manager told Don Prah: “We are not tackling the issues we can solve and we are tackling what we cannot solve. The blame must be placed on Ghanaians and policymakers. We have taken our attention from how we can take off the broken cars from the roads to drivers who get drunk in the night to drive.”
Chief suggested that the Ghana Police Service work with other stakeholders to remove all abandoned cars on the roads. According to him, if this is not done, the country will continue to record high cases of road accidents.
“So, if we keep talking about road safety and we don’t do what we need to do, then we will be deceiving ourselves. Abandoned vehicles have been contributors to road accidents and we need to check that,” he stressed.
In his submission, he also called on leaders in the country to set examples by adhering to the road regulations so that the citizenry will also follow their examples.
Abandoned vehicles on roads continue to pose a threat to road safety. It is estimated that road crashes resulting from abandoned vehicles on the road accounted for 21 percent of deaths through road accidents in 2016.
Besides the poor nature of roads, carelessness of road users, faulty vehicles, stressed driving, unskilled driving, inadequate road signs, overspeeding, drunkenness, which contribute to road accidents, abandoned or parked cars on the road are also leading contributors which is often not talked about.
For some time, stakeholders have called for the introduction of tougher laws such as a towing programme to remove abandoned cars on the road.
Even though the attempt to introduce a towing programme was made in 2017, there was a public outcry about the fees and the monopoly to be enjoyed by the Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL). Hence, the programme was suspended.
Global Media Alliance Broadcasting Company (GMABC) has dedicated the months of November and December to share educative and informative discussions on all issues that focus on road safety and automobiles.