I heaved with a great sigh when the National Road Safety Commission announced that it was in the process of enacting a road safety act that will help in a long way to reduce the spate of accidents on our roads.
I see this as a very brilliant effort to check our drivers to behave themselves well when they are on the road.But parts of the bill coming into force are that,drivers who fail to wear seat belts would be arrested.Driving whiles using mobiles would be prohibited.
But the problem I have is drivers wearing the seatbelts and the welfare of passengers.In the case of private vehicles,there is no problem because most of them have seatbelts.But with commercial vehicles we know they are brought in from abroad and their seats are manufactured here.Therefore seatbelts are not fixed in them.Again those vehicles which have seatbelts immediately they arrived at the ports the importers or the dealers remove them and sell them saparately at Abbosey Okai and Kokompe.So saying that driver a lone wearing seatbelts would not help passengers in any way in case there is an accident.The best way to save passengers is to get a seatbelt to each seat in a bus,mini-bus rather than the driver alone.
I would therefore appeal to authorities to rather enact laws that would provide passengers with seatbelts for their comfort and safety.This is because in the case of accident the seatbelt can save all passengers on board not only the driver.
Baffuor Owiredu-Amoh
Ghana Institute of Journalism
Accra
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