GSA boss: “Okada” responsible for 50% of road crashes in Ghana
Prof Alex Dodoo, the director general of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) has said about 50% of road crashes in Ghana can be attributed to commercial motorbikes, popularly known as “Okada“.
Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (24 January), Prof Dodoo said “Everybody knows ‘Okada’ is killing and yet people are politicising it.”
“It is about time that we enforced our rules. You see the contribution of Okada to death, now I don’t know whether we can quantify; for me I will say it’s a minimum of 30, maybe 50% of all deaths can be directly or indirectly related to Okada. I will check the figures.”
He added: “But we know for a fact that Okada has moved from being number 10 in the list to like number one or two of cause of deaths and everyone knows because they are not regulated. And you only have to go to Burkina Faso, Togo or Ivory Coast and they obey the rule.”
Automotive code
Prof Dodoo said the GSA will soon roll out the Ghana automotive code which will help in regulating activities of motorists including Okada riders.
“Okadas are not regulated and because of this most of their drivers do not follow traffic directives … they behave as though the road is theirs; putting lives at risk.
“In the next few weeks, you will see us launching the Ghana automotive code. The amount of deaths attributed to ‘Okada’ is too much … and this is because they are not regulated,” Prof Dodoo said.
