The incidence of road accidents in Ghana keeps escalating so much that it appears that government has lost the will to find a solution to keep this transportation menace in check. Ghanaians have come to expect that there will be road accidents and some see such as part of life. This must change. What has happened over the past several days in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital needs serious official attention. We need to find some solutions.
A few days ago, the lack of implementation of internationally recognized precautionary safety standards caused the death of some 3 young boys who were playing around the construction site at the Sofoline interchange in Kumasi.
Another fatal accident was reported a couple of days ago, where an articulator truck ran over some pedestrians at Santasi in Kumasi, killing a ten-year-old school girl on the spot and injuring twelve others. This also we consider very disheartening. We wish to use this avenue to express our sympathies to all to the victims and their families. The Progressive People’s Party believes that expressing sympathy is not enough. Something new and different must happen.
The safety of citizens is a cardinal responsibility of every government. Governments must create the enabling environment to ensure equity, fairness and the existence of support systems to help victims and their families cope with such situations. But the situation Ghana finds itself is totally different from what is generally the practice in well-performing countries. Our quest to become a developed country in which its citizens enjoy a high quality of life will not succeed so long as pointless road accidents continue to consume the illustrious sons and daughters of mother Ghana. Our promising nation needs the contribution of every individual within her territory to make her human-centered dreams a reality.
First things first - government must ensure that the Chinese construction firm and the driver and owner of the truck – those involved in these two accidents MUST face the full consequence of the law. The negligence of this foreign company has cost the lives of Ghanaians. No amount of compensation will bring back the dead. The company should be tried in a court of competent jurisdiction and its personnel responsible for this project punished for their negligence and failure to adhere to safety standards common everywhere in the world. The driver of the truck AND the owner must face the law courts what happened at Santasi.
It is very necessary that we send strong signals to everyone that Ghanaian lives are valuable. We must enforce our laws and hopefully through the implementation of the National Identification System, we can develop the databases that ensure that those who commit such acts are not given the opportunity and license to repeat their costly mistakes.
The PPP is committed to dealing with the root causes (especially corruption) of these problems. Our target must be how to strengthen the institutions such as DVLA, the police MTTU and others so that enforcement work can happen. Attitudinal change is the most desired answer that is knocking at our door, to confront and deal effectively with the nerve-racking road accidents in Ghana.

Kofi Asamoah-Siaw
National Secretary
23 February 2012