Although Ghana has a relatively high accident accidents, a Lecturer at the Planning department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Camynta Baezie, believes it’s a miracle that much more people don’t die considering the poor nature of roads and untrained drivers in the country.
According to him, the current situation of our roads coupled with the lack of trained drivers should result in more accidents than is being witnessed in Ghana.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View, he said Ghana’s road infrastructure is in a very deplorable state.
Dr. Baezie explained that, due to the unavailability of street lights on some major streets, driving at night is difficult and risky.
“In my view, we have far fewer accidents in this country, given the sort of facilities and infrastructures we have, It is a miracle we don’t have many more accidents, because the infrastructure is just so bad. You can’t see well at night, I couldn’t drive here tonight because I said the roads are too dark. When it is 6pm I don’t use the motorway because the road is too dark.”
Dr. Camynta Baezie was however full of praise for some Ghanaian motorists who despite the terrible nature of our road infrastructure take their personal safety on our roads very seriously.
He also attributed the most common causes of death amongst Ghanaians to road accidents.
“I think Ghanaians have done a good job keeping themselves individually safe using the roads when the state is not providing what is required to make our roads safe”
“Road accident is the number killer, it kills more people than any other disease” he added.
Dr. Camynta Baezie however also singled out some civil engineers as part of the reasons for the poor state of roads in the country.
He explained that, such engineers fail to come up with standard designs that ensure proper maintenance of roads not long after its construction
“The civil engineers are part of the problem, they don’t give us proper standard designs, the designs are substandard and we don’t train our drivers well. So I am saying it is a miracle we do not have more accidents in the country.”
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By: Jude Mensa Duncan | CitiNewsroom.com | Ghana | [email protected]
