#GhanaWebRoadSafety: Frankadua residents, Assemblymen go wild over killer highway

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

There appears to be growing agitation among members of several communities dotted along various highways in the country following the absence of speed ramps which has resulted in many residents being knocked down by speeding vehicles.

Many of these include communities lining up the Atimpoku-Juapong-Apegusu-Asikuma highway in the Eastern Region.

For residents in Frankadua in the Asuogyaman District, the incidents of rampant knockdowns have become alarming and are therefore threatening to block the road over the incidents if no action is taken.

They said that portion of the road has recorded several accidents and killed many road users and pedestrians because of the inaction of the authorities and opinion leaders.

The current threat followed the death of Mawuli Ganyo, a 32-year-old okada rider, who was crushed to death by a car few weeks ago.

Some residents who came to the scene expressed deep anger about the continuous loss of lives on that stretch of the road.

The Assembly Member for the area, joined the residents in agitating about the rampant road accidents on that stretch of the road.

Assemblyman for Morgadzi Electoral Area, Amenorhu Bright said the problem has persisted over the years despite efforts by the community to prompt authorities to have the problem fixed.

“For some years now, we didn’t have speed ramps in town so cars continue killing our people, some on motor, some in car and we’ve written to [the] Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) on several occasions, they couldn’t attend to us,” said Mr. Morgadzi.

He added: “It’s been killing people, we just buried one of our friends last Friday.

He however said the Authority “last week” wrote back to the community assuring them of coming to fix speed ramps in the area.

Assemblyman for Dzedeka Electoral Area, Dabah Simon also expressed concern over persistent accidents on the road.

He lamented to GhanaWeb that over six lives have been lost on the stretch within the past few years with other victims sustaining various degrees of injury.

“Just within three years, we’ve lost about six lives so the government should come and help us, seriously, we need it that’s why we wrote to them. We need this urgently.”



The disturbing incident has forced the youth in the various communities along the highway to construct temporal ramps to check vehicular speeding.

Despite these temporal measures, Mr. Dabah said the GHA must act on its concerns and erect proper speed ramps on the highway.

As part of measures to avert further knockdowns, Mr. Dabah Simon who doubles as a school proprietor said he sensitises kids in his school on road safety and encourages heads of other schools to do same for pupils in their schools to ensure they stay safe.

A victim of vehicular knockdown who gave his name as Henry recounted to GhanaWeb his close shave with death when he was knocked down by a vehicle.

“I went to buy yam and I was standing by the roadside. I saw the car from far away and I looked at the other side, there was no car coming. So the time I said I’ll cross, that one appeared and knocked me down. I fell unconscious and regained consciousness at the Akosombo hospital [Volta River Authority (VRA) hospital.]



An elderly woman who joined the agitation also appealed to the government to come construct the speed ramps for the community. She said, “I am begging the government to come and do the speed ramps for us because how the cars are running here with speed, they think that here we are in the village so they don’t respect us at all. They are killing us. We the grown up ones, when we want to cross, we’ll stand here about one hour to be able to cross to the other side.”

Another resident, Joshua Agblevor said, “When the vehicles get here, they speed, engage in unnecessary overtaking and they’ve been knocking our friends and parents down and this is killing us. We are pleading with the government to come over to do the speed ramps for us.”

The aggrieved residents further threatened to embark on demonstration if immediate steps were not taken to curb the dangerous trend as the situation was alarming with lives being frequently lost.

According to them, several appeals by members of the community have proved futile hence the need to express their displeasure on-street action, adding "we will soon block this road if nothing is done to prevent these things."

The people are thus calling on the authorities to deal with the perennial knockdowns of pedestrians along the highway.