The Ghanaian Times is forced to highlight a story on speed humps it carried yesterday in order to save readers time to refer to that story before they can follow this editorial piece.
Our story had it that the Minister of Roads and Highways, AkwesiAmoako-Atta, had directed the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) to remove all illegal speed humps along the country’s highways and tasked the Regional Ministers to provide the necessary security for the implementation of the directive within two weeks.
The minister’s directive came when an illegal speed hump at Suhyen-Jumapo, near Oyoko, in the Eastern Region nearly caught the dispatch riders of his convoy off guard, during his tour of the area.
It was reported that saloon cars and other smaller vehicles could not climb over the hump and others that had been constructed with freshly dug-out sand and stones without warning signs, which pose serious danger to motorists.
“These illegal humps are potential death traps and sources of accidents and must be removed without further delay,” he added.
He asked communities along the highways to notify the GHA to provide them with appropriate humps instead of taking the law into their own hands and constructing unapproved humps that eventually damage the roads.
The Minister warned of dire consequences for individuals and communities caught erecting such humps as they would be surcharged to repair any damage done to such portions of the road.
Mr Amoako-Atta stated that the ministry was ready to construct approved speed humps for every community that needed it and charged the various assemblies to undertake a total audit of their needs along the country’s highways for the necessary action to be taken.
The Ghanaian Times is happy that the minister has, at least, informed the public about what not to do or do with regard to speed humps.
The truth is that communities do not construct such humps we describe as illegal out of pleasure. They do so because drivers ignore all road safety measures and do what pleases them and no passenger or any member of the public dare challenge them.
There are numerous stories of speeding drivers killing some community members without such drivers being given any deterrent punishment, and this angers communities, who then try the use of such difficult-to-climb humps to slow down careless speeding drivers.
The Ghanaian Times is not trying to rationalise the construction of illegal humps; rather the paper wishes to call the attention of the minister and the powers that be that it is purely drivers’ misbehavior that calls for the so-called illegal humps. Therefore, driver misbehaviour must be seriously tackled and no community would crave for such humps.
It is indisputable that driver misbehaviourforms the greatest percentage of the causes of road crashes, so it becomes a bit of a worry when community members are blamed for a well-intentioned act.
The police in particular and other atakeholders in road safety must be up to their tasks and there could be some sanity on our roads.
The various assemblies should undertake a total audit of the road needs of communities along the country’s highways as ordered by the minister for the necessary action to be taken sooner than later.
We expect action, not words!
