Some members of the general public have called on authorities at the Ministry of Roads and Highways to get malfunctioning traffic lights on some streets of Accra fixed to prevent accidents.
In an interview with 3news.com, pedestrians and motorists who ply the Ring Road Central in Accra expressed how insecure they feel whenever they use the road.
Though there are four traffic lights spread across the portion of the road between the GBC bus stop and the Stanchart Bank, none is functioning.
For persons who drop off at any of the three bus stops between GBC and Stanchart, crossing the road from one end to the other poses a serious threat to them.
They risk being run over by speeding vehicles or motor cycles.
“It affects us all the time. As you can see not only the adults but the children as well are struggling to cross over,” a pedestrian said. “The traffic lights have been off for some time now.”
According to one of the pedestrians, a driver recently knocked a man down without stopping to aid the victim, a clear case of ‘hit and run’.
Some of them explained that without the traffic lights, it is difficult to cross the road due to the confusion that ensues.
“You may think that a driver is slowing down for you to get over only for you to see him speeding at you midway across the road and this is quite dangerous,” another pedestrian said.
However, a few of them opined that a footbridge would be a better solution as they made reference to the Adentan situation.
Some of the pedestrians also blamed the drivers for failing to respect the Zebra crossing sign as and when people stand to cross.
Nonetheless, they all stressed the relevance of the traffic lights to be functioning properly at all times to ensure safety and prevent avoidable road accidents.
This call comes at a time when the deadline given by the Roads Minister to repair broken and malfunctioning traffic lights has elapsed.
At the Meet The Press series in January this year, Kwesi Amoako-Atta promised that by the end of June this year, all traffic lights within the city would be functioning as expected.
He said a Traffic Management Center was under construction at the Department of Urban Roads, and that they will coordinate traffic lights to help address the problem.
By Ferdinard Tiekon| 3news.com|Ghana