Of the 1,267 mortalities arising from vehicular accidents from January to date this year, commercial motorcycles or okada account for 582.
It is a worrying statistics, more so since we are just halfway through the year.
Many more young men are joining the ranks of okada, the occupation offering a ready source of making ends meet in a country where unemployment remains a major social challenge.
With the increase in the number of okadas on our roads, there has been in recent times a heightened rate of indiscipline by the riders.
Motorists, private and commercial, must not only look out for pedestrians sometimes sharing the busy roads with them but okada riders, as the commercial motorcyclists are referred to.
They hardly know that like motorists they too must abide by road traffic regulations.
They do not stop at traffic intersections when they are ordered to do so by the red light. They simply ride past, sometimes with innocent pillion riders on their back often without helmets.
There are instances where three or four persons are on one motorbike oblivious to the risks involved in the foolishness.
Over the years, the issue of commercial motorcyclists has been politicised, a trend which has emboldened the riders to be more indisciplined.
When important subjects are so politicised, solutions to them often elude the authorities.
During the tenure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at a time when the late ACP Awuni Angwubutoge was in charge of Tema, he had a brush with a minister when the cop had okada riders arrested because, according to him, the law did not permit them to commercialise motorcycling.
The minister of course did not take kindly to the police officer’s effrontery as it were.
Since then, okada persisted even though the law not permitting them to do so remained in the statute books.
The subject came up again during the run-up to the last elections when the NDC promised to grant them special concessions to operate.
Only non-politicians can under the circumstances speak against allowing commercial operation of motorcycles in the country, especially when there are no clear-cut regulations for their operations. They risk being presented as anti-okada so they would lose the votes of this segment of the population.
The promises of special training among others are yet to be fulfilled by the NDC.
Like the 24-hour economy mantra, this too will remain a political slogan earmarked for electioneering campaign only.
Besides the rising mortalities arising from the recklessness of commercial motorcyclists, they make motoring challenging for private car owners as they continuously lose their side mirrors, not forgetting the dents they suffer at the hands of okada riders.
Those who think they must be left alone to operate because of their votes must remember the number of mortalities recorded this year alone, not forgetting victims now learning how to use clutches, having lost their limbs in okada-related accidents.
If we want okadas to operate, the occupation must be regulated and strictly so.
