Burning of bushes along the major trunk roads in the country is a dangerous phenomena witnessed across the country, especially during the main farming seasons
Often, vast lands along the highways are cleared for the purpose of putting up structures for human settlement among other usages.
It is important to mention that to achieve the above, the bushes along the roads are cleared, dried and burned to make the land bare and accessible.
Disgustingly, this practice of setting fire along the highways during the day or night, produces a pall of smoke which dangerously affects visibility on the road and put the lives of road users at risk.
This is because no matter how visible the road may be, the pall of smoke produced by the burning could easily blur visibility on the road.
Plumes of smoke which often billowed from such burning along the highways and other roads have caused fatal accidents in the past, leading to the loss of human lives.
It is instructive to mention that the recent fatal accident which claimed the lives of not less than thirteen passengers at Eduagyei, along the Cape Coast-Takoradi Highway, occurred as a result of reckless burning along the road.
The dangerous plume which billowed from the fire was so huge that it covered both sides of the road and caused heavy vehicular traffic on the highway.
However, a van travelling from Kumasi to Takoradi decided to risk its way through the thick smoke and collided head-on in the process, with a heavy duty truck which has veered off its lane.
The collision occurred at the heart of the plume, where there was absolutely no visibility, as both drivers obviously did not see each other following the thick nature of the pall.
Even though eyewitnesses and other onlookers could clearly hear the victims shout for help, none of them could move to their rescue because of the heavy plumes and an anticipation that the vehicles may catch fire.
Painfully, the passengers in the van, who had travelled all the way from Kumasi with just about forty five minutes left to reach their final destination, got trapped and perished in agony.
We are completely disgusted that such a calamity could befall us as a people following the recklessness of an individual’s desire to clear his or land in this archaic way in this twenty first century.
What is even more worrying is the fact that this is not the first time such a needless fatality has occurred, as there have been several of such and other similar painful incidents in the past, with no ending on sight
The Chronicle would not be far from right to suggest that such a calamity and its concomitant effects could be averted in a serious country, where the laws work because the individual could not have had the chance to do that in the first place.
As usual, those who passed through early and escaped the danger did not raise any serious alarm because such a practice has become part of our daily activities and that no one pays serious attention to the looming danger.
Unfortunately, the recklessness of the individual, which did not attract the attention of the powers that be, as well as the people around and the senseless decision of a driver to overtake, while he could not clearly see his way ahead, have claimed innocent lives.
We are, therefore, calling on the various authorities who are mandated by the State to ensure that such senseless activities which have the tendency to claim precious lives are completely tackled.
Ghana, as a country, has become a laughing stock around the world anytime we allow citizens to perish under such bizarre circumstances, especially when such needless fatalities affect our quest for achieving the SDGs.
Enough of the senseless carnage on our roads.
