I know of a land where many of the people licensed to drive vehicles are, judging from the way they drive, not qualified to do so under any circumstance because they regularly, and on a daily basis, break all the rules governing driving. The constant recklessness displayed by these drivers, if it were elsewhere, would be enough for them to go for re-training or even lose the licence permitting them to drive. In this same land there are constant road accidents involving vehicles and resulting in loss of lives to the extent that they have been accepted as the norm. Welcome to Ghana, the land where officials are good at identifying causes of accidents but are hopelessly helpless when it comes to solving the problems associated with road accidents. Next week will be Christmas week and as such, many Ghanaian Christians will be travelling to their home-towns to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. This is okay except that it also marks the season of preventable road accidents that claim human lives and bring many hardships to many homes. For once, let those in charge of seeing to it that the right things are done on our roads give us an accident-free Christmas because apart from those who lose their lives, those who survive turn to lose their limbs and other valuable body parts. Let us all remember that human beings do not have spare parts that they can change at will, therefore, drivers must be told in plain language that they must obey all the rules of driving. Early this year, a series of reported road accidents in the media prompted a meeting between President John Evans Atta Mills and those described as stakeholders at The Castle and many suggestions were made. What became of those suggestions is that they were not followed through and so the spate of road accidents continued. In September this year alone, almost on a daily basis, there were newspaper reports of road accidents, some of them fatal. One of such reported road accidents carried by the Ghanaian Times, complete with a front page picture of the mangled car involved in the accident, claimed the lives of young men in their early twenties. The accident happened on the Tesano-Achimota road and the three young men were driving home from a night out when they drove into a stationary vehicle. Exactly a year ago this month, the Ghanaian Times carried a news story under the headline 'Police to enforce law on seat belts' which contained the following paragraph: "The police will from next month prosecute motorists who drive without fastening their seat belts as well as those who drive while using their mobile phones." The Times story which was attributed to ACP Daniel Avorga also reported him as saying that any person who sat on the front seat of a vehicle in motion without wearing a seat belt has committed an offence and is liable to a term not exceeding 100 penalty units or a term not exceeding six months imprisonment or both. ACP Avorga was quoted again by the paper as saying the following: "It is for this reason that the police would have to enforce the law to bring sanity unto our roads." Sadly, one year after ACP Avorga had talked to the Times the very things he, mentioned, like driving without wearing seat belts and the use of mobile phones while driving are still common among drivers. And for me this creates a lot of difficulties because next time the police make statements like the ones they made to the Times, it will be difficult to believe them. Next week, as I have already said, will be Christmas week and many Ghanaians will be travelling to their home towns for the festivities and since travelling long distances in Ghana is largely by road transport, now is the time for vigilance on the roads. Often times we turn to put the blame for all the bad driving on drivers of commercial vehicles and even though this is largely true, I have seen many drivers of privately owned vehicles drive equally badly, if not worse. As Christmas draws near, let all remember that human beings have no spare parts and life is only lived once. So just for these reasons, at least, our drivers should strive to give us an accident-free Christmas for once. It is not impossible to do this; indeed, it is possible because it can be done. Credit: Baba Abdulai/The Spectator