FIVE people have lost their lives over the last two months on the yet-to-be-fully-completed Achimota-Ofankor Highway.? The five were knocked down by speeding vehicles, while attempting to scale the short retaining walls separating the different lanes and cross the road to the other side.
ALL five accidents, according to the Resident Engineer working on the Achimota-Ofankor Highway, Mr. Shelter Lotsu, occurred right under the footbridge at St John?s Grammar Junction near Dome. The victims, he said, include taxi drivers and pedestrians who seem to think they are in a hurry and so throw caution to the wind and try to cross the busy road instead.
A case in point was when in the wee hours of Wednesday, August 29, 2012, Agyei Kumi Elizabeth, a passenger who alighted from an Accra-Kumasi bus was killed just under the footbridge. Taxi drivers operating along that highway have also been victims of speeding vehicles, because they persistently decide to jump over the retaining walls and cross the highway to help prospective passenger on the other side with their luggage.
THOSE events at that location are not isolated cases.? Earlier this year the sponsors and contractors working on the George Walker Bush Highway, which stretches from the Tetteh-Quarshie Inter-change to the Mallam Junction, completed it and subsequent handed over to city authorities.? Barely few weeks afterwards, some people attempted scaling barricades separating the main carriageway from the service roads and were knocked down by vehicles.
STATISTICS from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that from February 15 to August 31, this year, there have been 253 crashes involving 447 vehicles on the George Bush Highway.? In those accidents lives may have been lost and many other may be cured of injuries, but will be left with enduring scars.
THERE are on the Achimota-Ofankor corridor four footbridges, which, according to Mr. Lotsu, are strategically located at places with high population density and bus stops for easy access.? Unfortunately, most people have decided not to use these footbridges.
UNFORTUNATELY, all attempts at educating road users on the dangers of not using the footbridges have fallen on deaf ears; some drivers and passengers alike choose to alight in the middle of the busy highway. Even some women carrying loads would rather cross the road than use the footbridge.
INTERESTINGLY, instead doing the right thing to prevent the accidents and deaths, St. John?s residents blame the unfortunate events on witchcraft.? Avowed literates have chosen to argue that people knocked down by vehicles at the spot have been cursed from their houses to die on the road, but that is sheer superstition.
TO complement the efforts of the Road task force at the St John?s Junction therefore, we on Today wish to appeal to passengers and residents at this specific location and all other highways to use provided footbridges and stop scaling the medians or retaining walls.
WE also enjoin the security personnel, especially those of the MTTU, to monitor events on our highways and prevent people from making the wrong moves that endanger lives on our highways.
WE also call on contractors on the Achimota-Ofankor road to speed up work and complete the footbridge at the Taifa Junction where people are also constantly knocked down by speeding vehicles.
LASTLY, it is also important to call on Ghana Highway Authority to provide more footbridges on our highways, since no one would want to walk five hundred kilometres or one kilometre or more to reach a footbridge before crossing a road.
