By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Sept. 18, GNA – The greatest challenge facing road safety is human error Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema East Constituency, has said.
He stated: “The bigger challenge for our road safety issue is a human error because that permeate even the three factors: if you take road construction, for instance, it takes human beings, if the engineers fail to inculcate the needed measurement, axle loads, among others, they will be contributing to road safety issues.”
Mr Odamtten, who was speaking on the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) road safety campaign programme, said looking at the contributions of vehicles to crashes, it has some form of human involvement, explaining that one must ask who those were mandated to work on such vehicles.
“Who are the mandated qualified mechanics who are working on our vehicles, the spare parts that they use on our vehicles, how are the standards being maintained, is someone checking tire quality, like spare parts quality that is coming into the country,” he said.
He said it was still a human issue as the work of the Ghana Standards Authority in checking the quality of things, including vehicle parts being imported into the country if not done efficiently could contribute to road crashes.
Touching on licensing of drivers, he questioned whether the right processes and regulations were being followed in the certification and licensing of drivers, saying it could be a yes or no answer as he had heard many stories about how people sit in their houses and acquire licenses.
The Tema East MP said: “These are challenges that we cannot overlook. We need to be up and doing as a nation to ensure that the legislation we must help us maintain sanity in terms of the certification of licensing is adhered to.”
He said carelessness was another challenge contributing to road crashes, noting that people who were tired and sleepy would still drive even though they knew the consequences of doing so.
He said although there was a law on drunk driving and not selling alcoholic beverages at lorry terminals such shops were still operating without anyone checking them.
Mr Odamtten, therefore, called on the MTTD, transport unions, and opinion leaders to ensure that people investing in the sale of such beverages see the need not to sell either in the terminals or near it as its proximity could tempt the drivers to drink it before sitting behind the steering wheel.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager, commended the Tema MTTD Regional Command for adopting a professional way of policing the roads and engaging with drivers, pedestrians and passengers.
He called for broader engagement with all stakeholders to ensure that the roads become safer for all to use.
GNA