About 50 pedestrians have been arrested by the Police at Madina in Accra for indiscriminately crossing the Adenta-Madina highway at unapproved spots.

Although the overhead footbridge at the Madina Zongo junction has been completed and opened for use, a lot of people in the area have ignored it and been crossing the road from unapproved spots, endangering their lives.

Police personnel on Wednesday morning embarked on a special operation to arrest persons indiscriminately crossing the highway at the Zongo Junction, eyewitnesses reported on Accra-based Onua FM.

Madina Divisional Commander of Motor Traffic Transport Department (MTTD), Supt Paul Wesley Baah, explained they arrested the pedestrians because they breached the Road Traffic Regulation 2012.

“Section 154(3) of the regulation states that a pedestrian who fails to use a footbridge or an underpass where one is provided commits an offence,” he said.

Likely to be fined

According to him, the suspects failed to use the overhead footbridges provided at the junction.

Supt Wesley Baah said “we shall process them for court today and the punishment could be 5 penalty units [60 cedis].

“We have done the education for the past three months so we shall take them to court today because the footbridge is there; clear for all to see. Some people are using it, why don’t you want to use it” he stated.

The MTTD Commander explained that the footbridges were provided for pedestrians to ensure their safety and that “It’s not to be a white elephant. We have to use it for our safety”.

Nonstop operations

Supt Baah assured that exercise will continue until such time that pedestrians change their habit of crossing the road by using the footbridge.

“We will keep doing it until the awareness is there. If we should do it at nights, we shall do it. We shall do it until the pedestrians use the footbridge,” he indicated.

25 police officers

Asked why the police would not constantly position personnel at vantage points to direct pedestrians to use the footbridges, Supt Baah said they do not have enough men to embark on such exercise.

He said “We don’t have enough personnel to position them and we brought them [from other units for today’s operation] because of the special exercise”.

Some pedestrians who spoke to Onua FM’s Marshall Bobobie expressed their joy over the exercise, and patted the police on the back.

Protests

Frequent knockdowns of pedestrians on the stretch of the road provoked protests by residents 11 months ago pushing government to get contractors to resume construction work on some six overhead footbridges from Adenta to Madina.

Four of the six bridges have since been completed and opened to the public for use, but some recalcitrant pedestrians still keep crossing the road dangerously.

Currently, the bridges at Adenta SDA junction, Adenta Barrier, Madina Zongo Junction and Assemblies have been completed with the ones at Madina Redco Flats and Firestone yet to be completed.