Road traffic accidents are prematurely terminating the lives of many people in the world. Road traffic-related injuries and mortalities, most of which are preventable, have become a major issue of public health concern worldwide.

In addition to the burden of road traffic injuries to the health sector, the associated economic costs alone are extremely devastating, especially for low-to-middle-income countries with limited resources.

Deaths from road accidents are captured in the SDGs with a target of halving mortality from road traffic accidents by 2030. Africa has become an epicenter of deaths from road crashes; it recorded 20 percent of all road crash deaths in the world with just three percent of the world’s vehicle population.

Deaths from road crashes in Africa increased by 17 percent, while the global rates fell by five percent from 2010 to 2021 (WHO 2023 status report on road safety in the Africa region). This threatens the attainment of SDG 3.6 - halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030.

It is estimated that six people die every day in Ghana due to road traffic accidents, and the situation is getting worse and scarier every year.

There are many road traffic regulations that are supposed to be providing effective safety and preventive measures to reduce this carnage on our roads that are not enforced or implemented.

In recent years, the introduction and enforcement of existing regulations have been aborted by the government due to reactions from opposition parties, the populace, and some CSOs.

The recognition of the importance of seat belts by the Government of Ghana and through the Ministry of Roads and Transport enacted a law in 2004 through an Act of Parliament (Act 683) and a legislative instrument (L.I. 2180, 2012) making the wearing of seat belts by drivers and passengers in all four-wheeler vehicles compulsory.

These laws were enacted in the anticipation that the use of seat belts by vehicle occupants would significantly reduce the number of fatalities.

The guidelines show that seat belts have saved more lives than any other road safety measure by reducing deaths by up to 50 percent. Child safety seats have cut deaths by up to 71 percent for young infants.

Promoting seat belt use is crucial in reducing road crash fatalities and injuries. This would help save lives and achieve particularly Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Safety belt and restraint systems installation for occupants of power-driven vehicles (Ghana Standard DGS 4016:2019) requires a device enabling the belt to be adjusted according to the requirements of the individual wearer and to the position of the seat.

The adjusting device may be part of the buckle, a retractor, or any other part of the safety belt. It is a requirement for any individual who wishes to fit a safety belt in their vehicle.

There are commercial minibuses that are fitted with standard seats with retractable safety belts. Some of the intra-city minibuses are cargo vans that have been converted into passenger vehicles, which do not meet standard requirements.

The seats are poorly fitted with metallic parts exposed. Fitting safety belts in these types of vehicles was going to pose further danger and contribute to injuries and death during accidents.

Even though the safety act does not prohibit the conversion of cargo vans into passenger buses, the regulatory authorities cannot supervise and enforce the conversion of these cargo vans into passenger ones. The best option is to ban it.

However, this will certainly not be a favorable decision for the government in power, who are also thinking about the next election. Because there will be rejection by driver unions, and fierce resistance from the opposition parties who are always eager to pounce on a loose event that will put the government in a bad light.

The second road traffic regulation that was aborted before its implementation was the compulsory or mandatory towing of broken-down vehicles on public roads.

The government, acting through the NRSA, signed an agreement with the Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL), a private entity, in October 2016, for the towing of breakdown and abandoned vehicles on roads.

The NRSA had announced that effective July 1, 2017, vehicle owners were required to pay a mandatory road safety fee each time they went to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to renew their roadworthy certificates.

The fees were to be paid annually with varying amounts depending on the vehicle type, purpose or usage, and tonnage.

However, before this policy could be implemented, members of the public resisted, citing lack of engagement, and this public action was supported by the opposition party and some CSOs. The government eventually suspended the implementation; hence there is currently no effective way of promptly towing disabled vehicles from the road to prevent crashes and fatalities.

Three months ago, NRSA announced that a new towing policy for breakdown vehicles is underway. The L.I. will provide three options for the owner of a breakdown vehicle to immediately tow it from the road.

“Under the new L.I., owners of disabled vehicles are required to remove the vehicle themselves, or subscribe to a towing service such that as soon as the car breaks down, it can be removed by the service provider. The third option is to use an insurance service where the insurance company will incorporate towing services into the premium."

If vehicle owners fail to use any of the three options, the NRSA and the police will mandatorily remove the vehicle at a cost to be borne by the owner. The vehicle owner will be surcharged with the cost of removal and pay for the cost of storage if the vehicle is parked at a place for protection until the time the owner comes for the vehicle. This new policy is implementable and it points to the fact that much consultation and stakeholder engagement took place.

This new policy will be effective if the NRSA and the police provide a number of short codes for the public to call. Each assembly should be responsible for identifying breakdown vehicles to determine the one to two hours towing period for prompt action.

Some of the towing trucks should be stationed at district assemblies with major trunk roads passing through them. To save the government some money, the private sector can acquire the heavy-duty towing and go into partnership with the government for the mandatory towing.

Additionally, it should be an illegal act for broken-down vehicles to be attended to in the middle of the road. This supposedly quick fixing by mechanics tends to exceed the period and also exposes the road to leaking motor oil that shortens the lifespan of the road and causes environmental hazards.

Apart from head-on collisions that result in more fatalities and injuries due to the huge amounts of external energy transferred to the body, running into a stationary vehicle also results in many casualties and prompt action needs to be taken on breakdown vehicles.

Thirdly, last week the Ministry of Transport was forced to withdraw another L.I. from parliament after suffering from severe backlash from the populace.

The instrument, which will amend portions of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012, if passed by the House, will allow specific officials of the state to use sirens or bells as warning appliances on specific classes of motor vehicles in the performance of official functions.

It will also remove speed limits on motor vehicles used by these state officials. They include the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice, and Ministers of State.

Others are the Justices of the Supreme Court, Members of Parliament, the Ghana National Fire Service, the National Ambulance Service, the Police Service, the Armed Forces, the Prisons Service, and other recognized government security agencies.

The main reason why the populace vented their anger mostly on social media is due to the heavy vehicular traffic in the major cities, but the politicians refuse to do the simple things to reduce the traffic in town.

Some people share simple but effective ways to reduce the heavy traffic and most of these are in the road traffic regulations that are not implemented or enforced. The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) is one effective system that is not being implemented well; not enough buses, buses not on time, not enough bus lanes, and the few lanes are taken over by other vehicles.

The government is working hard to revamp the railway system, which has always been a good and effective mode of transport since time immemorial. The sky train system has just refused to be in the sky but has comfortably decided to remain in the manifesto books. Unfortunately, there is no green book to show the beautiful artistic impression of the sky train.

The WHO report attributed the rise in road traffic deaths to multiple factors, and among other reasons, it identified that no country in the region currently has laws to meet the best practice standards for the five key road safety behavioral risk factors - speeding, drink driving, non-use of motorcycle helmets, seatbelts, and child restraints. Post-crash care services like pre-hospital care, emergency care, treatment, and rehabilitation services are inadequate or unavailable in most countries.

It is time to pay more attention to this epidemic. If road traffic accidents are taking the lives of six Ghanaians every day, then it is more deadly than some diseases that have much attention and funding.

The author, Dr. (Med) John Tengey is a Clinical Epidemiologist.