The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Safe Journey Foundation, Mr Patrick Kwame Frimpong, has urged commercial drivers to make road safety a top priority by taking responsibility for their own lives as well as those of passengers and other road users.
He said the alarming rate of road accidents recorded in the country required a renewed commitment from drivers and other road users to promote responsible driving and protect lives.
According to Mr Frimpong, human error remained a major contributor to road crashes, making it imperative for drivers to exercise greater caution, discipline and responsibility whenever they were behind the wheel.
Speaking to the media in Kumasi, he expressed concern over the increasing number of road accidents and described the situation as alarming, saying urgent and collective action was required to reverse the trend.
He stressed that although the condition of some roads in the country was a major challenge, drivers could not entirely shift the blame for crashes to poor road infrastructure.
Drivers know dangerous spots
Mr Frimpong noted that commercial drivers used the roads on a daily basis and, therefore, had firsthand knowledge of the condition of various stretches, including potholes, damaged sections and other dangerous spots.
He said such knowledge placed drivers in a unique position to adjust their driving behaviour and prevent avoidable crashes.
“Drivers have to take charge because they know the potholes, the bad sections and the dangerous spots. They must slow down, be patient and put safety first,” he said.
He acknowledged that Ghana’s road network was not in the best condition in many areas but maintained that drivers had a responsibility to adapt to those conditions instead of driving at speeds that could endanger passengers and other road users.
Avoid risky driving
The Safe Journey Foundation CEO urged drivers to strictly adhere to traffic regulations and avoid behaviours that could increase the risk of crashes.
He specifically mentioned speeding, wrongful overtaking, fatigue and poor vehicle maintenance as some of the practices that needed to be addressed to make road transport safer.
He said drivers must ensure that their vehicles were properly maintained and roadworthy before embarking on journeys, while also paying attention to their physical and mental condition.
Mr Frimpong cautioned drivers against operating vehicles when they were tired, saying fatigue could affect concentration, judgement and reaction time, thereby increasing the likelihood of an accident.
He also appealed to drivers to exercise patience on the roads and avoid unnecessary competition with other motorists, particularly when overtaking.
Shared responsibility
He said road safety could not be achieved by government agencies and road safety institutions alone, stressing that drivers, passengers, pedestrians, transport operators and other road users all had roles to play.
However, he emphasised that commercial drivers had a particularly important responsibility because of the number of passengers who entrusted their lives to them every day.
Mr Frimpong therefore appealed to drivers to see the safety of passengers as a personal responsibility and to make every effort to ensure that passengers reached their destinations safely.
He said preventing a crash was more important than arriving at a destination a few minutes earlier, and urged drivers to resist pressure to speed or engage in dangerous manoeuvres.
Call for collective action
Mr Frimpong called on drivers and other road users to work together with stakeholders in the transport and road safety sector to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, preventable road crashes in the country.
He said a sustained reduction in road accidents would require discipline, respect for traffic laws, responsible driving and greater public awareness of road safety.
He urged commercial drivers to complement ongoing efforts by government institutions, transport unions and other stakeholders by making safety a central part of their daily operations.
The Safe Journey Foundation, he said, would continue to engage driver unions, transport operators and the general public as part of efforts to promote road safety awareness across the Ashanti Region and the country.
Mr Frimpong reiterated that every road user had a role to play in saving lives, but stressed that drivers must lead the way by taking responsibility for their actions and putting human life ahead of speed, convenience and profit.
He said the collective goal should be to ensure that every journey ended safely and that innocent lives were no longer lost through avoidable road crashes.
