THE Accra-Kumasi highway, which links the two largest and most populous metropolises, Accra and Kumasi, is the busiest road in the country.
It is also the most important artery that links Ghana with its northern neighbours, Burkina Faso and Niger, as well as La Cote d’ Ivoire on the north-western corridor.
In view of its importance as a trans-West African highway, previous governments took steps to recondition its portion in Ghana to conform to international standards to make it easier and safer for the numerous motorbikes, tricycles and different types of vehicles ranging from saloon cars to articulated trucks that ply the routes.
One of such highways starts from the northern border post of Hamile through Tamale, Kumasi down to Accra and Tema, Ghana’s industrial hub and port city that deals with heavy cargo, some of which go to the landlocked countries.
Owing to its importance, previous governments took steps to recondition the long route, as a result of which certain portions on the highway have been rehabilitated to be among the best in the country.
The Nkawkaw-Apedwa stretch of the highway, which is among the best reconditioned roads, under normal circumstances, should have been free from the vehicular accidents normally associated with bad roads.
However, that stretch of the road has now become one of the graveyards in the country because of the frequency with which accidents occur on that portion, causing the death and maiming of many people, including important personalities such as Professor Quartey, Ghana’s best known neurologist, and three of his colleagues, about four years ago.
Although many factors such as drunkenness, faulty vehicles and non-adherence to traffic regulations account for motor accidents on the stretch, fatigue on the part of the drivers is the main cause.
The distance involved, particularly from Hamile to Accra, is very long (approximately 600 kilometres) and under normal circumstances, the vehicles, mostly articulated trucks, each of which should be manned by two drivers, have only one driver in control.
Instead of resting after being behind the steering wheel for more than four hours as stipulated by road safety regulations, such drivers ignore the regulations and drive non-stop to Accra, and some of them end up in accidents, especially on the Nkawkaw-Apedwa stretch of the road, due to fatigue.
To avert such disastrous accidents, the Regional Commander of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Police, Superintendent James Sarfo Peprah, has come out with a panacea, that is, two drivers per long distance vehicle.
Superintendent Peprah, who has been in the region for less than six months, after a thorough study, has realised that most of the accidents that occurred at night on the stretch involved vehicles from the Kumasi direction.
“Some of these long distance drivers from Hamile do not rest so on reaching the Nkawkaw-Apedwa stretch in the night, they start dozing off and collide their vehicles with oncoming or stationary ones, leading to fatal accidents”.
One of such accidents involving a Mercedes Benz bus with registration number GR 1521 Z being driven by one Kwasi Kwale, bumped into a parked articulated truck with registration number AS 2021 X at Akyem Asafo, in which three persons died during the Easter period.
“A lot of lives are being lost due to fatigue on the part of drivers who also use the headlights wrongly when approaching oncoming vehicles and can you believe that 38 accidents occurred in the night between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. on the stretch and other parts of the region during the Easter period (April 10-14) out of which 12 persons died?” Supt Peprah asked.
The regional MTTU boss said his men had been positioned at vantage points, particularly near disaster-prone areas.
He cautioned drivers about the dangers associated with their recklessness while behind the steering wheel and conform to road safety regulations.
The Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, also expressed concern about the carnage on the stretch of the road and has supported the idea of two drivers per a long distance vehicle.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo, who was an eyewitness to one of such fatal accidents during the Easter festivities, has also suggested the use of log books indicating the departure and arrival time of long distance vehicles with traffic officers being stationed along the route to ensure its compliance.
“It must also be mandatory for vehicles that set off from the northern regions for Kumasi and further down south to change drivers at either Techiman or Kintampo because no single driver can cover the journey without being tired,” Mr Ofosu Ampofo stated.
“So many accidents occurred at the dangerous curve at Potroase on the main Accra-Kumasi highway and that led to the diversion of the road from that spot but we are recording the same rate of accidents on this well-constructed road so the police must do their best in checking drivers on traffic regulations such as speed limit and driver fatigue,” Mr Ofosu Ampofo stressed.
He called for the provision of facilities that would enable drivers to rest and park their vehicles along the stretch, since that would go a long way to minimise the high rate of motor accidents.
The regional office of the Road Safety Commission has also come in to deal with the issue and has planned to form a traffic management team that would operate on the stretch to deal with all issues associated with road safety.
According to Mr Stephen Anokye, the Regional Co-ordinator of the commission, vehicles, especially the long distance ones, would be periodically stopped to ensure that both the vehicles and their drivers were in “good shape”, and called on passengers to co-operate with officials assigned with that responsibility.
With such measures, it is expected that the rampant motor accidents occurring along the stretch of the road of late resulting in the loss of human lives and property, would be drastically reduced.
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