AUTO MECHANISM AND ROAD ACCIDENTS

Road accidents cost nation $288 million. This was the chilling story as told by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) in Ghana and reported by newspapers in Ghana recently. The $288m 2008 does not include the direct and indirect cost of road accidents to relatives of victims – wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children etc - such as funeral costs and the cost of having to do without loved ones and breadwinners. Through road accidents, many children and other dependants of victims have become destitute. Companies, businesses, state institutions (departments, hospitals, schools and colleges, universities etc) have lost many experienced and competent employees through road accidents. The cost of road accidents for the current year has yet to be released. We are all holding our breadth to see what the figures for the coming years will be.

Suffice it to say that motor accidents have enormous negative social and economic consequences, especially in a third world country like Ghana which has no strong state support system that assists the injured and relatives of deceased victims of road accidents. What makes Ghana’s situation worse is that majority of the people do not have life and disability insurance policies from which they or their dependants can get some financial support when they are involved in accidents.
The above very distressing situation thus calls for drastic intervention by the government and its agencies like the DVLA and the Police and indeed all citizens to play their role in ensuring drastic reduction in road accidents in Ghana. It is very heartening that the DVLA is at long last taking the initiatives to address the problem – undoubtedly one of the biggest concerns and fears of every Ghanaian. Let’s hope that the new initiatives will make our roads safe.
Much has been written already about road accidents in Ghana and how to curb it. This article is intended to reinforce the importance of the subject matter and offers some more suggestions on long term solution to road accidents.
Rehashing the causes of road accidents:
One of the problems that readily comes to mind is - how some of the current drivers plying on Ghana’s roads (and those at whose hands countless souls have been lost or maimed) obtained their driving licenses and how road-worthy certificates were issued for the many vehicles that have been involved in road accidents or are still plying on the roads.
With the stark statistics about the number of road deaths or people injured and the staggering cost of road accidents, I am sure the conscience of any DVLA official who compromised on his/her sacred duty to ensure that only competent drivers were issued with licenses and only road-worthy vehicles were passed – should be pricking him or her. Those who took bribes and issued drivers’ licenses must be smelling the blood of many innocent passengers who have died on their hands. And the daily cries of widows, widowers, orphans, mothers, fathers and disabled victims of road accident should be giving them sleepless nights.
It is a known fact that some DVLA officials even sell ‘international drivers’ licenses’ to Ghanaians living abroad which they subsequently convert into genuine drivers’ licenses in the countries they are living. Some of the holders of the fake international driving licenses that I know have died in horrific road accidents.
The first major cause of road accidents in Ghana is poor driving skills. I have witnessed this many times as a passenger myself. Other causes are the normal ones we know very well:
• shoddy work by auto mechanics
• Driver fatigue (dozing behind the steering wheel)
• Drunkenness by drivers
• Over-speeding by motorists
• Defective vehicles
• Overloading
• Poor roads
• Non-existent road markings and signs

Although the above stated causes are some major causes of road accidents in Ghana, but then the question is how far we have gone to fine the main core causes of it. Mostly, Ghanaians base their arguments on the above causes and forget the main ones. We know auto mechanics are there to solve automobile problems for us. But then how far have we gone to see whether indeed they do more harm than good for us.

The auto mechanic industry has been among the industry that has grown for the past years. Majority of the youth who find themselves out of school delve into this industry. Due to that, professionalism in this industry has been in a diminished stage. Most o f the youth who find themselves in this sectors do not concentrate much on the work but rather on the money they accrue. They turn to do shoddy works to faulty vehicles in other to get quick money. Vehicles that are brought to them for diagnoses are rather poised with diseases. Day-in day-out, repaired automobiles from the so called professional mechanics ply our road and cause a lot of threat to human lives. The so called professionals feed the faulty automobile with faulty car parts for them to ply our roads, and due to that, Ghanaians are always faced with the unusual news on our various media channels.

Its time the government together with the road safety commission come together  to set  down strict measures and rules that will be used to govern the daily activity of the  auto mechanic industry.
 Lastly the government should set up a ‘road accidents fund’ into which a percentage of the taxes on fuel and toll roads revenue will be paid. All road accident victims – dependants of deceased victims and seriously injured passengers - may be paid some money from the fund. The payments will go a long way to ameliorate the hardship families’ face due to motor accidents.