The Dodowa highway has been identified by the Tema Regional Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) as a major accident-prone road in Tema area.

According to the MTTD, the nature of the highway coupled with driver indiscipline and speeding makes it the most dangerous road to ply in the Tema Region.

He, therefore, cautioned road users to approach that road with circumspection.

Sergeant Richard Timinka stated on behalf of the Tema Regional MTTD Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police William Asante, at the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office and MTTD road safety campaign platform.

The GNA-Tema and MTTD Road Safety Project seek to actively create consistent and systematic weekly awareness advocacy on the need to be cautious on the road as a user, educate all road users of their respective responsibilities, and sensitize drivers especially of the tenets of road safety regulations, rules and laws.

Sgt. Timinka explained that due to the heavy vehicular traffic from Adenta and its environs preceding the Dodowa highway, drivers after getting out of the traffic turn to speed to catch up with the time lost. In the process, they end up in accidents due to three things- fatigue from the traffic, speeding and the nature of the roads.

He identified other accident-prone areas in the region as the Tema-Akosombo Highway before the Army Recruit Training School where there was some damage to the road and posed as a risk to road users.

Other areas are Community 18 Junction, Tema Technical Institute, and Super Paper area on the Tema Harbour-motorway interchange road, the top of the Adjei-Kojo under the bridge, the Accra-Tema Motorway, Zenu-Atadeka Highway, and Action Chapel area towards the motorway interchange.

He cautioned drivers plying these roads to drive with care to avoid causing accidents or being a victim of one, stating that the MTTD would continue to collaborate with the GNA-Tema with its driver education programme to remind drivers to do the right thing on the road.

The MTTD Officer explained that they often organized training programmes for the executives of the various driver unions who in turn were expected to educate their members in the language they could assimilate.

Sgt. Timinka said they intended to extend such training to private drivers and companies in addition to schools, explaining that they see children as agents of change who could draw their parents and relatives’ attention on the road if they were made aware of the dos and don’ts of the usage of the road.

He urged road users to abide by the tenets of the Road Acts, Highway Code and Road Traffic Regulations as they contained all the needed information and instructions for every road user including pedestrians on what to do and what not to do on the roads.

He said Regulation 154 of the Road Traffic Regulation for instant spelt out how a pedestrian should use the roads saying, “we have observed that in Tema, pedestrians cross the road when the traffic turns green for vehicles to move, they commit an offence by doing so”.

The MTTD Officer added that a pedestrian who also fails to use a pedestrian crossing and footbridges where available and crosses the road at their convenience also commits an offence.

—GNA