GhanaWeb FactCheck: Did Roads Minister Amoako-Attah lay causes of accidents on drivers?

Claim:

A piece of information on the @Joy997FM Twitter handle on March 23, 2021, indicated that the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Attah, had attributed the cause of accidents in the country to drivers.

Explanation:

"Roads and Highways Minister, Kwesi Amoako Atta is blaming drivers for the significant increase in road accidents.

"The minister argues

Read full articlethat the construction of good roads will lead to more fatalities due to driver indiscipline and over speeding... #JoySMS," the @Joy997FM tweet said.

This came on the back of a comment by Kobena Mensah Wisdom Woyome, the Member of Parliament for South Tongu in the Volta region, on the accident situation in the country, reports Joy FM.

Roads and Highways Minister, Kwesi Amoako Atta is blaming drivers for the significant increase in road accidents.

The minister argues that the construction of good roads will lead to more fatalities due to driver indiscipline and over speeding... #JoySMS

— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) March 23, 2021

Verification:

Following that, the Ministry of Roads and Highways issued a rejoinder on the news report that made attributions to the sector minister as saying that the increase in road accidents should be blamed on drivers.

According to the statement, the claims are false, misleading and should be disregarded.

"The attention of the Ministry of Roads and Highways has been drawn to a Twitter handle page of Joy 99.7fm, attributing a statement to the Minister of Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwesi Amoako Attah that drivers are to be blamed for the significant increase in road accidents and that construction of goods roads will lead to more fatalities due to driver indiscipline and over
speeding.

"It is worthy of note that the Hon. Minister of Roads and Highways never said that "construction of good roads will lead to fatalities". To emphasise, what the Hon. Amoako-Attah said was "… research and evidence show that over 90% of road accidents could be attributed to the human factor. In our country, the more we improve on our roads, the more we make our roads motorable and comfortable to ride on, the more we spread asphalt overlays, the more we get and record accidents because most of our drivers take the opportunity to overspeed on improved roads".

"The Minister further called upon his colleagues in Parliament to assist in educating their constituents on road safety issues.

"We wish to state that the reportage by the said Twitter handle is misleading. We hereby entreat the general public to disregard the attribution to the Hon. Minister," the statement concluded.

Conclusion:

As of the time of publishing this report, Joy FM had neither defended its interpretation of the tweet nor had it come out to challenge the defense of the statement from the ministry.

The GhanaWeb Fact Check Desk, therefore, establishes, from all of the above analysis and the details as contained in the rejoinder from the Ministry of Roads and Highways, that the claim is INCOMPLETE.