A Car Has Over-taken a Donkey Cart But,

Only Just: Some Lessons from Botswana

Feature article by David M. Kabzot Tembil

Along a certain section of one of the roads in Botswana someone with a few farm produce and a collection of firewood is a on a donkey-cart moving slowly at about 5 km per hour. A fast moving car speeds past the donkey cart; the occupants of the car are driving away in excitement and with no idea of it, heading towards an assembly of other donkeys many kilometres ahead grazing along the road or stubbornly standing in the middle of the highway.

These donkeys are apparently on a ‘suicide mission’ perhaps to avenge the ‘crime’ committed against them by humans who make them beast of burden or even feast on them as meat or, it is also possible by their nature they do not understand the danger of speeding vehicles. A few hours after the over-take the fast moving car comes rolling to a crash stop with fatal consequences caused by a collision with one or many of the donkeys on the motorway.

So many lives have been lost due to these non-religious ‘suicide- bomb’ donkeys on the roads of Botswana but, the death toll due to animals is not limited to only donkeys. Some drivers have also met their death on the road at night either by colliding with a cow that quickly springs to the road from a nearby bush or have accidently driven into a herd of cattle resting in the middle of the road chewing the cud after a long day.

Death is a tragedy whether on the roads of Botswana or Ghana. The difference is that the death on Ghana roads is in big numbers; in a magnitude and perhaps in exponential proportions to the population of the two countries. (The population of Botswana is about 2 million and that of Ghana, about 25 million). Another difference is how each nation responds to these tragedies in order to arrest the carnage on the roads.

In the case of Botswana and with regard to causalities on the road due to animals or due to other factors the Legislators, NGO’s, and all major policy players have taken a serious note of these sad occurrences and have put the following measures in place to arrest the carnage on the roads with very encouraging dividends:

• Every stretch of a busy road prone to accidents caused by animals usually extending into hundreds and even thousands of kilometres is fenced off with barbed wire to keep the animals from moving onto the roads.

• Companies and individuals are also contracted by government to ensure that the roads are safe from any stray animals that may have broken the fences or strayed into the highways or into urban roads. The contractors patrol the road with siren-fitted vehicles to drive away any stray cows and donkeys from the highways and from all appropriate areas so as to keep them safe for feasible flow of traffic. A penalty awaits any contractor who allows a mishap of an accident along a road within his or her contractual jurisdiction.

• There is an ongoing discussion for REFLECTORS to be fitted onto the ears of the donkeys by an NGO’s to make them visible at night, and warn drivers effectively.

• All heavy-duty trucks and tankers have restricted movement between 6.00 pm- 6.00 am. There are designated areas for these tankers and heavy trucks to park until day- break the following day.

• There are very duty conscious police officers manning the roads with speed traps especially on holidays to nab and penalise over-speeding drivers. Other police officers at different points check on road –fitness of vehicles as well as drunk- driving or unlicensed drivers. The financial penalties to road offences are appropriately prohibitive to serve as a deterrent .There are other methods used, such as confiscation of Drivers Licences or Vehicles which are also very effective in removing danger from the roads. The MTU and DVLA of Ghana could take a cue.

The investment in making the roads safe for all users is certainly very enormous on the part of the government of Botswana. But as the absence of such interventions could spell doom and horror on the roads, the country has taken the best option to spend money and stay alive.

On the part of Ghana, it does not appear our legislators and other policy players are up to the responsibility of making travellers arrive safely and alive since the loss of human capital is reported daily and weekly from all parts of the nation. What comes to mind relates to two accidents at the Northern Part of Ghana involving the Metro Transport Bus along the Tamale –Bolgatanga road in September 2010 and November, 2012.

• One day in November, 2012, A Metro transport bus carrying over fifty passengers leaves Bolgatanga heading towards Tamale. Among the passengers are children, women and young graduates from the Wa Campus and the Navrongo Campus of UDS en route to Tamale for a grand graduation ceremony. These young men and women have been working so hard and look forward to the moment of the hand-shakes plus the Certificates that summarise their sweat and toil for the 4 or 5 years. All of sudden and close to the centre of Tamale the bus driver allegedly makes an involuntary decision to swerve one way in dodging a motor-bike rider, but comes colliding head-on with an oncoming truck. About 32 people die on the spot among them many of the young graduates, women and children. Others are maimed for live. The live of a young graduate cousin of the author of this article was cruelly lost on that day; and the total death toll from the accident went beyond 35 and kept going.

• In 2010, another horrific accident occurred around the village of Savelugu (24 km from Tamale) involving a Metro Transport bus from Tamale that was heading towards Bolgatanga where about 40 lives were lost. One young journalist from Bolgatanga lost his live in that accident. The wailing and weeping at the big funeral in Bolgatanga for the deceased journalist gave testimony to the gravity of loss of a dear son of the soil.

Here we have two unfortunate events not caused by a natural disaster like an Earthquake of Tsunami , but all the same registering over 80 deaths within two years along a highway; what a huge loss of human resource or loss of bread winners for some families! Can we say we do not recognise the after-math of such accidents as a painful limitation of happiness in the lives of survived mothers, fathers and possibly orphans? How have we as a nation of Ghana responded to these tragedies?

There are still more questions to ask. Is this an issue of the Metro Transport buses being prone to accidents on Tamale- Bolgatanga road? Did the Ministry of Transport investigate what led to the first accident in 2010 in order to prevent another one occurring in 2012? And after the second accident involving Metro Transport bus on the same road, somebody must be responsible for grounding those buses for a thorough investigation. But it does not appear that we are responding vigorously enough to arrest the road carnage. We should act immediately to prevent another accident involving a Metro Transport Bus on the same Tamale- Bolgatanga road possibly waiting to occur.

If we have to draw some lessons from Botswana, I have the under-listed suggestions for consideration:

• There may not be many animals on our roads but I will dare say the motor bikes in Ghana translates into much more stubborn donkeys right deep in the city centres and town centres. Some motor riders rightly wear helmets as a risk management strategy but move at exceptionally high speeds to make that precaution useless. The issue of over-speeding, whether by Motor-bike riders or others should be addressed seriously with speed traps and accompanying stiff penalties for offenders.

• The population of animals on the roads could be higher in certain locations in Ghana than others, and decisions at the Regional levels and District Assembly levels could adequately address the situation. Ghana needs to take pro-active steps into enforcing or enacting laws and bye-laws to stop animals from competing with human on the streets of cities or towns. Whether it is along the Abilba street in Bolgatanga or Effiakuma township in Takoradi animal owners should be stopped from feeding their cows goats and sheep from the baskets of market women one day and have them killed the next day at night or even during the day by fast moving vehicles.

• All the fleet of Metro Transport Buses operating at the Northern Part of Ghana and plying Tamale to Bolgatanga or vice- versa must be grounded until a thorough investigation on the road-worthiness of the buses as well as the drivers competencies are established After all, before the arrival of these buses, the people relied on the limited means of transport with less mourning since death on the roads was not in such high numbers.

By David M. Kabzot Tembil

Private Bag 001, Shashe, BOTSWANA