A psychologist and counselor, Rev. Gideon Obeng Brakoh, minister in charge of the Agona Nyakrom branch of the Presbyterian Church has proposed compulsory psychiatric testing of the state of the mind of every commercial driver in the country, before he is issued driving license.
He said this should be part of the requirements of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority [DVLA] to help check and reduce the spate of road accidents in the country.
Rev. Brako’s proposal follows a recent accident at Dompoase, near Komenda junction on the Cape Coast-Takoradi high way which caused the lives of almost forty passengers.
An eyewiness to a heinous road accidents at on the Apam-Cape Coast road that claimed the lives of almost all the passengers on board the vehicle, Rev.Brako noted that most commercial drivers exhibit some form of psychiatric disorders such as unnecessary speeding, wrongful overtaking even in a curve among others, posing danger to other road users.
He debunked the notion held by some that most of the accidents happen as a result of the bad nature of the roads.
Though he admitted that the road could be factor, he said they contribute to only about five percent of all cases, blaming the rest on human error on the part of drivers.
In a related development, the founder and leader of the Divine Liberation Chapel also at Agona Nyakrom, Rev. Emmanuel Nana Afrifa Agyeman has called for national prayer as a panacea to the increases cases of road accidents in the country.
According to him, he prophesied about the incidents long before the Christmas festivities, and even organized special prayers with church to counter it.
He later attributed the incidents to occult powers engaged by some people including the youth and some politicians for wealth and power, stressing that these occult spirits are always in need of blood, hence the increasing cases of road accidents experienced in the country.
By: Robert Ayanful