Avoid Night Travels ― Carnage Victim Advises

The start of this week was a sad one for Ghana as reports of some road carnages threw the nation into a state of grief.

The current happenings reveal how fast Ghana is losing its rich human resource to needless accidents on our roads and the reality calls for urgent attention.

A victim who has lived and conquered a gory accident that claimed the lives of 31 people says, night travel must be avoided at all cost.

According to Madam Rose Tigah who works with the Ghana Health Service in the Northern Region, night travelling is extremely dangerous and wishes it would be banned in its entirety.

The victim who has been in the hospital since March 2017 told Radio XYZ, that the head-on collision involving a Burkina Faso cow cargo occurred at about 1:00am on a dark and rainy night.

“I was sleeping when the accident occurred but those who were awake said both drivers were all on top speed so the impact was too great,” she recalled.

According to her, the accident could have been avoided or it impact reduced if the driver of the VIP bus had seen the incoming cargo vehicle in time.

Still justifying her stand against night travels, Madam Rose said, after the crash, “…all the trucks and vehicles that were passing never came to our aid because it was night and it was raining.”

She continued: “…what I have seen and what I saw there, there was no mercy. Some of the travellers were trapped in the seat and we needed a cutter to cut and remove some of them and by then some of them had not died. We called fire service but no way. There were only 4 policemen at the scene.”

“The people who travel in the night, what are you going to buy, are you going to buy your life?  No matter how urgent my travel will be, I will never and ever travel in the night again,” she maintained.

NRSC Stand

Though Madam Rose argues that night travel should be avoided, the Director of Communications at the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr Kwame Kodua Atuahene, in an interview with THE PUBLISHER says, “it would be unconscionable to say we should not drive at night,” adding that a decision like that would create absurd outcomes.

“Visibility is very core to every safety programme that’s why we provide street lights, reflective material on cars to improve visibility. We cannot ban or say people should not travel at night because the roads are dark.

“But every driver ought to know that when the weather conditions change, you must adapt your driving to the changing environment. If you are driving at a speed of 90km/hr it would be unwise for you to continue to do that when you can’t see your way through…it is not an excuse that the roads are dark so you want to drive recklessly,” he enlightened.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]