The Ghana Police, road carnage and vehicular criminality

MTTU Boss, ACP Angwubutoge Awuni

The Ghana Police, road carnage and vehicular criminality

I will not wait till I become one-eyed, one-legged or one-handed before crying
out about the astronomically high spate of road accidents in this country, and
the need for pragmatic steps to be taken to improve the situation.


It’s unfortunate that as important as it is, the issue of road accidents in
Ghana is perpetually being pushed aside or kept on the backburner in media
discussions and analyses.
According to the January 10, 2011, edition of the Daily Graphic, 6000 people
nationwide have died in road accidents within the last three years and at least
forty thousand people have been injured within the period.

Officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service
(MTTU) continue to offer various explanations in respect of the high spate of
road accidents in the country.
The officer- in-charge of Education, Research and Trainingat the head office of
the MTTU told me in an interview that 98 per cent of road accidents in the
country were avoidable and that only 2 per cent of accidents nationwide were
due to bad roads and mechanical faults.
He mentioned ” indiscipline, over-speeding on roads and highways,
drink-driving, use of drugs while driving, unlawful overtaking, driving
carelessly, dangerously and inconsiderately and driving tired’’ as some of the
causes of road accidents in the country.
When I enquired what the MTTU were doing to stem the tide and reduce road
accidents in the country, ASP Alexander Kwaku Obeng indicated that MTTU had
stepped up efforts to clamp down on vehicular criminality.
‘’Patrol teams made up of MTTU and DVLA officials have begun patrolling the
country’s roads and highways. We have also intensified efforts to educate road
users through the media on the need to obey traffic rules and regulation’’, he
said.
He went on to add that ‘’Drivers who are caught flouting road rules and
regulations will be prosecuted according to the laws of Ghana.

Despite the constant sweet talk by the MTTU, several observers including this
writer are getting increasingly worried that road accident cases in the country
are increasing by the year. In 2007, 1346 died in road accidents across the
country. In 2008 that figure increased by 13 percent to stand at 1520. A
further 1587 people lost their lives to road accidents in 2009, representing a
19 per cent increase on the 2007 figures. This figure increased by 30 per cent
in 2010 to stand at 1760. Just a month into 2011, at least 135 people have
lost their lives in road accidents already. And if steps are not taken to
salvage then situation that figure could run into two thousands by the end of
the year.
There is the need to tackle the pervasiveness of road accidents once and for
all for the benefit of all and sundry. This is important, especially when we
have no way of telling who the next road accident casualty will be.

It is motorists who continue to be indicted as the causes of road accidents in
the country, with the MTTU continually ‘clamping down’ on them. While we
continue to educate motorists on the need to be responsible while driving, we
mustn’t fail to address other factors that contribute to road accidents in the
country. One of such factors is corruption on the part of some MTTU and DVLA
officials. What is being done about MTTU and DVLA officials whose corruption,
inefficiency and lack of commitment to the national cause continue to
contribute indirectly to road accidents in the country?

If the country is to succeed in her attempt to reduce road accidents, the first
step will be to rid the MTTU and DVLA of corrupt officials who continually bend
the law in favour of motorists. Motorists break traffic rules and regulations:
They over-speed, drink-drive, and drive recklessly. Others drive without the
requisite paper work and they do so with impunity, knowing that the Police
officer is willing to bend the law in their favour for as low as one Ghana
Cedis. Some DVLA officials on the other hand, give licenses to unqualified
drivers in return for money.
It’s no longer news that some traffic police men go unto the roads not to keep
motorists in line with the law but to exhort money from them. More worrying is
the fact that private cars are seldom stopped for routine inspection. It is
commercial and taxi drivers who are perpetually asked to stop for ‘scrutiny’.
So when the officer shouts ‘p-a-r-k!’, the driver complies and quickly slips
one Ghana cedis or more into one of his documents. Then he goes out of the
vehicle to meet the Police officer. The officer pretends to inspect the
document, and then he surreptitiously slips the money into his pocket and waves
the driver off.

I was in public transport the other day. We approached a police check point and
a dark, well-built officer peeped into the bus and immediately asked our driver
to park. ‘Aban, what have I done?’ the driver asked after he had parked the
vehicle. ‘You want to know what you have done’, the officer began. ‘Na npaboa
wei na ye di kan car?’ The officer asked: to wit ‘is this your shoe good for
driving?’ The driver who couldn’t help laughing at this point, alighted to
meet the officer. I was vaguely surprised that the officer was more interested
in the driver’s foot wear than in his paper work. The officer wasn’t even
interested in ascertaining whether the driver’s vehicle was in good shape! The
driver returned barely 10 seconds later having parted with one Ghana cedis.

The preceding exemplifies the sort of attitude some of our police men exhibit
on our roads. It’s unfortunate that Police officials who are supposed to
ruthlessly enforce the country’s road laws continue to close their eye to
vehicular criminality on our roads, thereby inadvertently contributing to
accidents. Needless to say, education on reducing road accidents must begin at
the door step of the MTTU. Officers must be lectured on the need to be as
professional as possible in their dealings with motorists. Yes, the police and
drivers are friends but that should not prevent the traffic police men from
executing their duties professionally and arresting drivers who breach the law,
when there is the need to.

The MTTU boss, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Angwubutoge Awuni has already
initiated some measures aimed at reducing road accidents in the country,
notable among them is the ban on mobile phone use while driving. While
commending ACP Awuni for pragmatic approach to the issue, I’ll urge him to make
assiduous efforts to rid his outfit of corrupt and unpatriotic officers whose
actions and inactions are not only contributing to road accidents in the
country, but also giving the police a bad name. We need dedicated officers who
wouldn’t fail to enforce traffic regulation on our roads; officers who would
enforce discipline on our roads by clamping down on recalcitrant drivers and
even going ahead to arrest drivers who attempt to bribe them. Situations
whereby Police officers exhort money from motorists and bend the law in their
favour should end. When motorists realise that the police won’t hesitate to
deal with them when they break traffic rules, they won’t fail to drive
carefully.

There is also the need to deploy more police officers on our highways where
most accidents occur. Though we have thousands of police men in the country,
only a few of them patrol our roads and highways. This isn’t good enough; a
police man’s duty post is on the streets where his presence alone is capable of
deterring prospective lawbreakers, including vehicular criminals. If ACP Awuni
succeeds in implementing some of these suggestions, we would be on the way to
significantly reducing road accidents in the country.

samuelkwason@yahoo.com
samuelobour.wordpress.com