Road of Death

Bunso Junction on the Accra – Kumasi highway has turn into a road of death.

Barely three weeks, three lives has been lost on that sport (Bunso  junction) and  just yesterday a woman believe to be in her 40’s was smashed into piece when crossing the road by a truck and was run over by the next vehicle.

According to an eye witness who is a friend of the deceased when speaking to Radio 1 said, they were going to Apedua after a long day at the market.

”My friend cross the road to get some of the loads off, and when coming back was smashed into pieces by an over speeding truck driver.’ she spoke in tears.

The woman added that the truck refused to stop after smashing the woman. The deceased whose name was given as mother left behind three children and the children could not identify the body of their mother since her body thorn into pieces and the body was collected in a sack.

This is not the first and not the second but the third time in three weeks. Just within three weeks, three lives has been lost on this same road, and it only happen during the weekend when there is pressure on the road and the authorities have turn a blind eye to this incidents.

Speaking to some youth at the scene they said, they will take actions to bring an end to this tragedy because it could happened to anyone of them.

Quite often, when one burst upon an accident scene anywhere in Ghana, many are quick to push the blame on several causes including; over speeding, wrong overtaking, poor road networks, while officials tend to put the blame on the poor pedestrians for not being careful on the street.

In fact there are many occasions where the blame is even shifted on some evil spirit elsewhere especially during the Christmas and Easter periods, therefore most accidents which normally occurs at Christmas are often considered to be the work of the devil.

The bottom line is that, our people have always found someone, somewhere upon whom the blame should be shifted at the end of the day. Because of this, efforts have been made to identify some of the major reasons why there are currently too many accidents at the Bunso Junction on the Accra, Kumasi Highway.

In fact some of my findings are quite disturbing and I hope the appropriate authorities will act as soon as possible to help save lives since we head towards another festive period.

But how many people have to die every week before the road authorities will address this problem once and for all?

I have never seen any speed limit on this highway as the vehicles approaches the town and I am yet to see any road signs which read like; slow down, reduce speed now or warning message such as temporal speed limit at 10km/ hr on any of the dangerous bends all along this highway. What of road markings?

Our leaders also refuse to put in place the necessary measures that will check the traffic offenders. This is why such accident continues to occur on a daily basis and in such large numbers. In the night, many of our roads including the so- called motorway have no street lights

Here in Bunso, lot of the street lights are not working. Some of the potholes on these motorways can be called manholes.

What does this tells us? Does it mean unscrupulous drivers are at liberty to drive at any dangerous speed they choose? What happens to these drivers who might not be familiar with the road? As for Zebra crossing, the drivers have no regard for their use at all.

By: www.radiooneghana.com /Agyapong Michael