“gods” pacified to Halt Fatal Road Accidents on the Tamale – Kumasi Highway
The Paramount Chief and Traditional Elders of Mankpan Traditional Area pacified the “gods” at Mile 40 on Sunday, February 28, 2021, to help curb accidents on the Tamale-Kumasi Highway, following their concerns over how 4 road traffic accidents has claimed 28 lives with several others injured in February. The Paramount Chief and his elders observed the traditional rite to appease the “gods” of the land for the safety of the residents who ply the road by offering an animal sacrifice.
Source: SoireeNews
So this is a typical example of how religion and culture influence health and safety in Ghana. In as much as we need our traditional leaders to support in the fight against road traffic accidents, there is the need for us to understand the nature of the risks we face and adopt the appropriate pragmatic and scientific approach to dealing with them.
In our part of the world, we seem to have a lot of people still living in the world of virtual risks, where for lack of information, they make sense of the world and its happenings with superstition and theological speculation in order to allay fear and reduce the complexity of problems into manageable proportions. This however negatively influences our approach to managing risks.
A road traffic accident is no way a virtual risk and the pacification of the “gods” is definitely not the way to go.
Road traffic incidents are risks scientifically proven from failures of humans, organizations and the government hence should be addressed in a systemic approach leveraging on the roles of individuals, organizations and the government to address these failures;
- Human failures such as over-speeding, wrongful overtaking, driver fatigue, lack of competence to drive;
- Organizational failures such as lack of road transport safety management system, lack of effective journey management, Inadequate system of maintenance, and lack of quality assurance on driver safety and vehicle safety;
- Government failures such as poorly designed roads, lack of maintenance of roads and traffic controls, lack of a legal obligation for road transport safety management system by road transport operators and inadequate enforcement of road safety regulations;
We cannot reduce the complexity of high rate of road traffic accidents to virtual risks by adopting mystical approaches to dealing with the problem. Hopefully, our traditional leaders would understand that road transport safety has nothing to do with the protection by the “gods”.