The Central Regional Chairman of the Progressive Transport Owners Association {PROTOA}, Mr. Yaw Faya has admitted that between sixty and seventy percent of all road accidents in the country occur as a result of negligence on the part of drivers.
Commenting on the two separate incidents that occurred on the Mankessim road and Kintampo area that claimed about one hundred and twenty lives last Friday, Mr. Yaw Faya blamed it on over speeding and reckless driving.
He has therefore called for the deployment of more police personnel on the highways to check over speeding drivers, as according to him, that will help reduce the incidents of road accidents in the country..
He said the mandate of such police personnel should not be to arrest alone, but to also educate drivers when necessary.
He however condemned the National Road Safety Commission for not living up to its mandate of organizing continuous road safety education for drivers, pointing out that even where they do, they do it for only some selected places, neglecting drivers in where they deem deprived areas.
He later called on all transport Unions not relent on their efforts of continually organizing in-house training and education for their respective drivers to help reduce the carnage on the road.
Meanwhile, the minister in charge of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Agona Swedru, Rev. Martin Luther Agbovi who expressed his opinion about the incidents called for a second thoughts about the advocacy by some for the introduction of new laws, as according to him, some of these accidents have spiritual connotations.
He express that most transport owners go to the extent of seeking spiritual means to protect to protect their transport business, and these spirits, in most cases demand human blood for pacification, leading to some of the gruesome accidents witnessed on the road.
By: Robert Ayanful