It was 7am and mother was running late for the office. She could not get up early from bed because the previous day had been so tiring. Daddy had already left, setting the clock alarm to wake up his wife since all his efforts had proved futile. The alarm had gone off but she did not hear. When she woke up it was 6:30am. She rushed to get her two kids ready for school. When they were ready to leave the house, she ushered them into the backseat of the car and she left the house. She was speeding than normal since she was in a hurry to get to the office. Her kids; Kofi and Adwoa, were jumping at the backseat throwing questions at their mum. She tried shutting them up but they just won’t keep quiet. With her speeding, the questions from the kids and their jumping, she did not notice the car which had just crossed into her lane. All she heard was a big bang, screeching of tires and shouts. When she woke up, she had spent three days in coma. She was later informed that her daughter had hit her head so hard that when she came out of her coma, she had amnesia. Her son unfortunately had gone through the windscreen and had died. All these could have been prevented if she had done one thing; strapped her kids in their seat belt.
Yesterday, Monday 6th July 2010, I was on my way to town when I saw a horrific sight. Placed on a motorbike with no helmet was an infant. His father was the one riding the bike and he also had no helmet on. I cared less about the father. 1. He was old enough to know what was good for him. 2. He had seen the many adverts on television about the benefits of wearing a helmet. 3. He has seen a lot of the world so if he decides to kill himself that was his problem. I did not like the fact that he was endangering the life of that innocent child who was yet to know a lot about the world; the ugly and the beautiful, the hard and the soft, the sadness and the happiness, the cry and the laughter and so on.
I remember one evening on Fiifi Banson’s programme on Peace fm (a radio station in Ghana); he was talking about parents strapping their kids in their seats when driving. I was happy to hear the action he took when he saw parents in their cars with the kids just standing. He said he will stop them and tell them to strap the kids in their seats. From what he said, the parents he talked to did listen to him. That was brave of him to stop someone and tell them to do something. Probably they listened to him because he was well known. But what worries me is: did they continue to do that or it was just a nine day wonder? It is very common to see children standing and jumping around in a moving car. That is dangerous.
The National Road Safety Commission keeps talking and making advertisement about wearing our seat belts when in our vehicles, it was not for only adults. In the UK, It is an offense to be seen in a moving vehicle without wearing your seat belt. In Ghana, I am not so sure about that. Try going into people’s car and you will see how dirty their seat belts are. It goes to show that those seat belts have not been used in years. I just hope that law or no law, people will put their life first and those of their children above theirs.
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