EDITORIAL: When Oh When?!

Will Parliament Act Now That a Second Member of the House Has Been Claimed By the Indiscipline On Our Roads?

When the Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey and the Minority Leader, the Hon. Alban Bagbin locked horns and parliament was squabbling away on partisan pursuits last week, a second member of the august House was only a few days away from becoming another tragic victim of the life-claiming indiscipline on our urban roads and highways.

Last month, the Member for Navrongo Central, Hon. John Achuluwor died from wounds sustained in an auto accident on the Accra-Kumasi road. This past weekend, Mr. Emmanuel Acheampong, MP for Gomoa East was also tragically killed in a motor accident on the Accra-Cape Coast road. The second member in one month

One of the promising lady District Chief Executives, readers will recall, was killed at Suhum last year when the vehicle she was traveling in was smashed up by a timber truck also on the Accra-Kumasi road.

It is possible that many people have forgotten that Ghana's former Vice President Kow Nkensen Arkaah, died from complications in a hit and run accident he was involved in, in 2001.

Kow Arkaah's one time boss, Mr. Jerry Rawlings, was himself caught in an accident on the Tema Motorway and escaped with his life by sheer good fortune. Two soldiers in a Benz car in his convoy were smashed to death.

One of President Kufuor's outriders popularly called Burger was killed last year when a driver crossed his path and run into him.

These are only a few examples of the high profile that caught the headlines. There is an endless list of painful and needless deaths in our police records but even amidst all that carnage, a certain inertia seems to have gripped both the Ghana Police Service and urban authorities responsible for traffic safety. Despite all the public outcry and indignation against indiscipline on our roads, the police have so far not been able to come up with any strategies on how to stem the life destroying traffic chaos. These traffic killing fields have become a serious cause of concern and only matched by the violent armed robberies that have gripped the country these past twelve months.

Vice President Aliu Mahama, in a blaze of publicity announced the National Campaign for Greater Discipline last year. It received full public support and was seen as one of the more forward-looking initiatives of positive change. A major component of that campaign was to be directed at traffic indiscipline.

Several months after the inauguration of the campaign, whose slogan is "DO THE RIGHT THING", doing the wrong thing has rather gained precedence and traffic abuse has been going from worse to terrible!

Much of the killer traffic indiscipline, according to MTTU sources, come from the commercial transport sector - trotros, taxis, big and articulated haulage trucks, long distance passenger vehicles, etc.

If the police and urban authorities have failed in restoring order to that sector, parliament has equally been remarkably blas? about the problem. The carnage has been taken to the floor of the House, which has been hit in rapid succession with two funerals and same number of bye-elections arising out of road traffic accidents. The question now is, would parliament act decisively and come up with legislation to fight traffic indiscipline or wait for a third member to be slaughtered in an auto accident? The next one could be any of the remaining 198 of them. But God forbid. Ghanaians expect their legislators to live to ripe old age without having their lives snuffed out by traffic accidents.

But they would have to show more interest in tending the building blocks of society, which would compel citizens to do the right thing and save lives.

The Ghanaian commercial transport sector is in shambles and until parliament comes up with the legislation that would modernize it and bring more discipline on Ghanaian roads, more lives would continue to be lost prematurely on Ghana's traffic killing fields.

The Honourable John Achuliwor and the Honourable Acheampong are dead. Do their colleagues find the manner in which they passed away acceptable? Hopefully they would use these two deaths to get the laws in place that would rid Ghanaian roads of the slaughter.