Ho, June 24, GNA - Job insecurity and an uncertain future among commercial drivers are partly to blame for most road accidents in Ghana, Mr. Francis Dimake of Aprotech Services said at Ho on Tuesday. He said commercial drivers, except the few who work for big reputable companies, are hired and fired at the pleasure of vehicle owners to whom the minimum wage means nothing.
These, coupled with domestic pressures and the need to secure their own future, sometimes compel commercial drivers to overstretch themselves to disastrous limits dragging their passengers along with them. Mr Dimake who is also the facilitator-consultant of a pilot Social Security project for drivers in Hohoe in the Volta region, made these observations at the launch of the project at Ho.
"There is no respect for the labour law and social security law in the transport industry and the frustrations these bring to drivers contribute seriously to road accidents", he asserted. Mr Dimake said it was therefore wrong to limit the causes of road accidents to drunk-driving, over-speeding, overloading, defective tires, and wrongful overtaking "without considering the conditions under which drivers work".
He said an effective enforcement of PNDC Law 247 on Social Security for commercial drivers could help reduce the pressure under which they work and hence bring about a reduction of road accidents in the country. Mr Noble John Appiah, Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), said accidents were preventable and that they reflected a failure in the system.
Launching the project, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, deputy Minister of Roads and Highways said a 2008 research by the NRSC indicated that one way to help reduce and prevent road traffic crashes in the country is to improve the welfare and working conditions of drivers. He said though long overdue the project was a welcome initiative, given "this critical phase of our national development effort", and hoped it would be adopted countrywide.
"We will do all things possible to ensure that those of our compatriots outside the social safety net do not continue to be left outside", he said.
