To reduce deaths on the road through crash – let us place value on human life (I)

Road transport is essentially the basic mode of transport. It interfaces with other modes of transport namely air, rail, maritime and inland transport. Every journey begins with the road and ends with the road. Notwithstanding these accolades, road transport records more fatalities, injuries, property damage comparable to the other modes with which it interlinks and interfaces.

Road crashes occur as a result of the breakdown or failure in the interactive relationship amongst the road, the vehicle, the human factor and also the environment within which these primary factors operate and interact.

The choice and selection is not based on any scientific study that the author had undertaken but rather based on review of occurrences of road crash, continuous and consistent observation of the attitudes and behaviours of road users leading and resulting in road crash and the resultant consequences.

Mobile phone

Regulation 107 (1) of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 LI2180 states as follows: “A person shall not drive a motor vehicle on road or public place while holding, using or operating a cellular or mobile phone or any communication device in one or both hands.”

A person shall not supervise the holder of a learner’s license whilst the person who is driving the vehicle is using (a) a hand-held mobile telephone or (b) a hand-held device of a kind specified in sub-regulation (5).

Are there risks in using hand-held mobile phones? It is not only a traffic offence that is committed in respect of the use of mobile phones. As you use one hand in driving, it is obvious that you would not be able to maintain complete control over the vehicle.

A factsheet released by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety of Queensland reveals the following: “A person using a hand-held or hands-free mobile phone while driving is four times more likely to have a serious crash resulting in hospital attendance. Using a mobile phone while driving and especially texting is highly distracting. Driver distraction is determined to be one of the main causes of road crashes estimated to account for approximately one-quarter of car crashes.”

A review of road crash data in countries outside Ghana and Africa is very revealing and instructive. In September 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States of America released a report on distracted driving fatalities for 2009. The report stated that 5,474 people were killed in the United States as a result of distracted driving. In the United Kingdom, 1 in 6 male drivers under 25 years crashed due to mobile phone usage. In New Zealand, during 2002 and 2003, driver distraction was stated in 9.5 per cent of police reported crashes.

These are the facts and, therefore, those of us who indulge in the habit of using mobile phones while driving are increasing our risk of getting involved in road crash. It is well established that once you step on the road, you assume risk in using the road for you to share the road with other road users with different levels of knowledge and skills in using the road. Why do you increase the levels of risks in indulging in the use of mobile phone whilst driving a motor vehicle or riding a motorcycle, tricycle and bicycle?

If we place value on human life, I do not think we will continue to indulge in the habit of using mobile phones whilst driving against the preceding data. It is common to find and observe drivers of heavy goods vehicles carrying goods such as containers and public service vehicles carrying passengers with their drivers using one hand to hold the steering wheel with another on the mobile phone. Everyday one observes drivers of fuel tankers on mobile phones whilst in traffic. Private cars and 4×4 drivers are not left out of the competition, with some of them wearing suits, coats and ties.

Motorcyclists are not left out of this competition. It is common to find motorcyclists riding with one hand and the other hand on a mobile phone, meanwhile there is more than one pillion rider on the bike. The motorcycle is designed and manufactured to carry the rider and the pillion rider. In our beloved country, motorcyclists can carry a passenger in front of the rider and two passengers behind the rider, thereby making four persons on the motorcycle which is meant only for two persons.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians are not left out of this dangerous and unsafe act. Drivers stop for a pedestrian to cross the road and you observe, to your surprise and maybe anger, that he or she is talking on the phone. This act or behaviour is a flagrant abuse of the advice of the Ghana Highway Code. It states that when crossing the road, a pedestrian is to look all around for traffic and listen. Traffic could come from any direction. One is required to listen because you can sometimes hear approaching traffic before you see it. How would you hear traffic if you have an earpiece in your ear and are talking on the phone?

There was an accident on a rail track when a pedestrian was crushed on the rail track as he had an earpiece in his ears and calls directed at him that the train was approaching did not reach him, and he passed on to eternity. For all you know, the funeral poster would have read “Gone Too Soon” or “What A Shock”. How can failure to exercise duty of care amount to “gone too soon”?

It is common to find and observe pedestrians running for their lives whenever it starts to rain. Meanwhile, the same pedestrian will walk with a mobile phone in his or her hand on the road notwithstanding the fact that a vehicle is approaching. Does that mean the pedestrian fears the rain more than a motor vehicle? Although pedestrians may be deemed the most vulnerable amongst road users, when it comes to the use and sharing of the road, they appear not to place value on human life.

It is a daily, if not hourly, occurrence to observe pedestrians crossing the road with mobile phones in their hands or earpieces in their ears, with maximum concentration on the conversation and what they are hearing. The same pedestrian would start trotting if it starts to drizzle; when the rain pours, the trotting turns into a 100-metre race. Pedestrians fear rain and not vehicles.

Weekends are marked by funeral rites, particularly at the end of the month. Depending on the age of the deceased, we clad ourselves in black or red for burial ceremonies. Those wearing black attire, if they do not have their own means of transport, need to leave before sunset to enable them to reach home safely. What do we do? We stay till sunset and start crossing the road when it is dark. A basic principle in road crash prevention is “See and Be Seen.” When you wear black clothing while crossing the road, the incoming motor vehicle can hardly identify you.

I remember clearly, whilst working at the then National Road Safety Committee, now National Road Safety Authority, that a General Secretary of the Co-operative Transport Owners Association, after attending a funeral, was crossing the road and was crushed to death by a vehicle.

Against these incidents, it is advisable that pedestrians meet the expectations contained in the primary principle of road crash prevention, namely “See and Be Seen” at night, by wearing reflective materials such as armbands, sashes, jackets, and footwear which can be seen by drivers using headlights up to three times farther than non-reflective materials.

It is disturbing and unacceptable that where pedestrian bridges or overpasses are erected, they are not used. Pedestrians think it is shorter and quicker to cross the road instead of using the overpass. Shortcuts are dangerous, as our ancestors have warned. Climbing the stairs leading to the overpass is also an exercise that can improve health. The Adenta overpass is there, yet pedestrians still cross the road instead of using it.

The Kaneshie Market pedestrian overpass has been in existence for more than thirty years, as a result of joint efforts of the Ghana Highway Authority and the erstwhile National Road Safety Committee. At the time, the space on the overpass was shared between pedestrians and hawkers. Pedestrian crossings are provided for use, but more often than not, pedestrians ignore them and cross at points of their choosing. Pedestrians prioritise convenience over personal safety.

Advance warning triangle

Vehicles, like any other equipment, can develop faults, malfunction and break down in the course of use and operation. Many road crashes have occurred due to broken-down vehicles remaining on the carriageway without advance warning triangles, leading to injuries and deaths.

Regulation 83 (1) of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 LI1280 states that: “A person shall not drive a motor vehicle on a road unless that person has in the motor vehicle a pair of advance warning triangles.”

BY J.M.Y AMEGASHIE, ESQ

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