Civil Engineer, Abdulai Mahama is pushing for speed limiters to be installed on all vehicles as part of efforts to avert the numerous road accidents recorded in the country annually.
Speaking on the Super Morning Show, on Wednesday, he entreated the Road and Highways Ministry to fast track processes in ensuring that the speed limiters are installed on especially, commercial vehicles since this will significantly reduce the high rate of accidents in the country.
“I don’t think it will take the country five months to get the speed limiters installed. At least they should start the process of installing them in the VVIP buses, Coaster buses, and the GPRTU commercial vehicles,” he said.
The concern follows the release of latest statistics which suggest that the number of deaths recorded through road accidents this year, are more than last year’s although the year has not ended yet.
According to data from the MTTD, a total of 25,666 vehicles were involved in road accidents with 2,608 deaths recorded as against 2,589 deaths in 2020.
Ing Mahama attributed the current state of affairs to over-speeding.
Director-General of the MTTD, Dr. Samuel Sasu-Mensah, who was also on the show stated that about 80 to 90% of road accidents that occur in the country are attributable to driver behaviour.
He noted that most drivers who ply the roads do not comply with laid-down traffic rules and regulations and this largely accounts for the high accident rate recorded annually.
He, thus, entreated drivers and other road users to strictly comply with the road regulations in order to significantly bring the situation under control and save the many lives lost annually due to road accidents.
“If you want to drive on our streets what you have to do is to wear your C.O.A.T, where C means Concentrate on the art and science of driving, O for Observation, A for Attention, and T for Tolerance on our roads. If we go by this C.O.A.T principle, I doubt accidents will be rampant as it is now,” he said.