Road Accidents

When you are travelling in Ghana pray that you are never involved in an accident, lots of deaths happen on the roads, the chances that you will are pretty high as they drive like lunatics, I witnessed a shocking incident, on the way to the Kumasi central market, I saw a little crowd was forming then I saw a motor bike lying a few feet away, a man was lying on the ground motionless, people from the crowd were poking and prodding the poor guy as if to see if he was still alive, others were shaking his arms, someone will lift his leg up and let it drop and someone was turning his head right then left, it was surreal, almost like a pack of hyenas feasting on a carcass, except of course they weren’t eating him, I must add before you get any funny ideas, but you know what I mean, they must have been doing this for nearly an hour before he was bundled into a taxi, I remember thinking, don’t they know that every second counts for someone in that condition and the time wasted could have killed him or the mishandling could cripple or even kill him?

I wondered how many people have died needlessly, then I thought, what was the alternative? We live in a country where there is no adequate ambulance service, if any, so he is left to the kindness of strangers who don’t know what to do, just doing the best they can to save him, unfortunately the same people could kill him without knowing, and some strangers are not so kind they are only there to see what they can steal from him I was told, the dangers are that whatever money you may have on you may be stolen, and the doctors won't treat you without money, so you may have money sitting at home or the bank but could be left to die for the lack of funds at your time of need and that really terrified me, its all well and good if you die instantly, what bothered me was being critically injured and not getting proper care.

We live in a country where there are no ambulances or trained professionals to deal with accidents, yet we have politicians driving around in expensive cars.

We could buy ambulances with the money the government spend on expensive cars for their own use.
Ghanaians really need to speak up because it is costing them their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Talking of speaking up, Ghanaians will be travelling on a mini bus packed to the hilt and the driver will be driving like a maniac, clearly playing with their lives and nobody feels they have the right to tell the driver to drive carefully or slow down, to Ghanaians I say this “it is YOUR life nobody has the right to play with it so please SPEAK UP! if you think your life is being threatened by a reckless driver! If they don’t listen, get off the bus!. If everybody does that they will soon learn to respect lives, because it will send a clear message to them that your lives are precious to you and refuse to let any fool toy with it, one more thing, if somebody is brave enough to stand up to them, the rest of you should back him or her up! Don’t just sit there and make them feel like they are a nuisance because this “too know” could be saving your LIFE. (Ghanaians call anybody who expresses his concerns and stands up for his/her rights, “too know”) a lot of people keep quiet for fear of being branded “too know”. A “know it all” to you.

As I mentioned earlier I read a lot of expat blogs before going to Ghana, I remember a comment made that I found to be very true, “I am not a Christian but I ever since I have been in Ghana I have been praying constantly, I pray when I get into a taxi and thank God when I reach my destination in one piece.” She was absolutely right, getting into a taxi is like playing a Russian roulette, but that is a whole new blog. You have to pray.