IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v8y2021i1d10.1057_s41599-020-00695-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Festival Godwin Boateng

    (The Earth Institute—Columbia University)

Abstract

The paper sheds light on the problem of the growing embracement of penal populism (fines and prison sentences) as a measure for dealing with road trauma in Africa through a case study of Ghana. It argues that the policy of hunting for rogue drivers to make roads safer in the continent is as ineffective as killing mosquitoes one by one to control malaria. The best remedy is to drain the swamps in which they breed. The swamps, in respect of road trauma in Africa, are the ineffective public transportation systems and the focus on constructing more expensive roads, which encourage the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sectors that are structurally embedded in driver exploitation. These factors coupled with police corruption and the traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns are what underlie safety-adverse driving and road transport problems generally in the continent. More fundamentally, the paper argues that the law enforcement-heavy approach to road trauma essentializes African drivers as having a danger-prone driving culture. This generates (in)discipline concerns that act as a red herring by deflecting attention from the structural factors undermining road safety in the continent: the continuing effects of neoliberal programs funded by international development bodies, and the profiteering and political interests of powerful coalitions of private transport owners’ unions and public officials that have molded and entrenched the continent’s road transport sectors in its present problematic forms to serve particular purposes. The paper hopes to move road safety conversations in Africa away from the present thinking that enforcing greater punishments against drivers, rather than addressing the broader societal systems whose effects manifest in the road transport sector, is “the” answer to the unacceptably high rate of carnages on the continent’s roads.

Suggested Citation

  • Festival Godwin Boateng, 2021. "Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:8:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00695-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00695-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-00695-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-020-00695-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Constant, A. & Salmi, L.R. & Lafont, S. & Chiron, M. & Lagarde, E., 2009. "Road casualties and changes in risky driving behavior in France between 2001 and 2004 among participants in the GAZEL cohort," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(7), pages 1247-1253.
    2. William Baah-Boateng, 2013. "Determinants of Unemployment in Ghana," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(4), pages 385-399.
    3. Enoch F. SAM & Albert M. ABANE, 2017. "Enhancing Passenger Safety And Security In Ghana: Appraising Public Transport Operators’ Recent Interventions," Management Research and Practice, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 9(3), pages 62-75, September.
    4. Novoa, A.M. & Pérez, K. & Santamarina-Rubio, E. & Marí-Dell'Olmo, M. & Ferrando, J. & Peiró, R. & Tobías, A. & Zori, P. & Borrell, C., 2010. "Impact of the penalty points system on road traffic injuries in Spain: A time-series study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(11), pages 2220-2227.
    5. Vanessa McDermott & Rita Peihua Zhang & Andrew Hopkins & Jan Hayes, 2018. "Constructing safety: investigating senior executive long-term incentive plans and safety objectives in the construction sector," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(5), pages 276-290, May.
    6. Thompson, Jason & Newnam, Sharon & Stevenson, Mark, 2015. "A model for exploring the relationship between payment structures, fatigue, crash risk, and regulatory response in a heavy-vehicle transport system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 204-215.
    7. Daniel E. Agbiboa, 2016. "‘No Condition IS Permanent': Informal Transport Workers and Labour Precarity in Africa's Largest City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 936-957, September.
    8. Rizzo, Matteo, 2017. "Taken For A Ride: Grounding Neoliberalism, Precarious Labour, and Public Transport in an African Metropolis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198794240.
    9. Sam, Enoch F. & Brijs, Kris & Daniels, Stijn & Brijs, Tom & Wets, Geert, 2020. "Testing the convergent- and predictive validity of a multi-dimensional belief-based scale for attitude towards personal safety on public bus/minibus for long-distance trips in Ghana: A SEM analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 67-79.
    10. Festival Godwin Boateng, 2019. "A brief case for an organizational grounding for structural safety in the construction sector," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 472-473, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mintah, Kwabena & Boateng, Festival Godwin & Baako, Kingsley Tetteh & Gaisie, Eric & Otchere, Gideon Kwame, 2021. "Blockchain on stool land acquisition: Lessons from Ghana for strengthening land tenure security other than titling," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Leif Sörensen & Jan Schlüter, 2021. "How do contract types and incentives influence driver behavior?−An analysis of the Kigali bus network," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Enoch F. Sam, 2022. "How effective are police road presence and enforcement in a developing country context?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Dumedah, Gift & Abass, Kabila & Gyasi, Razak M. & Forkuor, John Boulard & Novignon, Jacob, 2023. "Inefficient allocation of paratransit service terminals and routes in Ghana: The role of driver unions and paratransit operators," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Festival Godwin Boateng, 2020. "“Indiscipline” in context: a political-economic grounding for dangerous driving behaviors among Tro-Tro drivers in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Frank Iyekoretin Ogbeide & Hilary Kanwanye & Sunday Kadiri, 2016. "Revisiting the Determinants of Unemployment in Nigeria: Do Resource Dependence and Financial Development Matter?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 28(4), pages 430-443, December.
    3. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & López-Valpuesta, Lourdes & Pedregal, Diego J., 2019. "From legislation to compliance: The power of traffic law enforcement for the case study of Spain," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-9.
    4. William Baah-Boateng, 2016. "The youth unemployment challenge in Africa: What are the drivers?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(4), pages 413-431, December.
    5. Adetunji Adeniyi, 2021. "Factors Affecting Sectoral Employment in Nigeria during the Period of Growth (1981-2014)," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(2), pages 6393-6393, June.
    6. Christopher Opoku Nyarko & William Baah-Boateng & Edward Nketiah-Amponsah, 2014. "Determinants of Job Search Intensity in Ghana," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 8(2), pages 193-211, May.
    7. Joël Noret, 2017. "For a multidimensional class analysis in Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(154), pages 654-661, October.
    8. Asongu, Simplice & Tchamyou, Vanessa, 2015. "The Impact of Entrepreneurship on Knowledge Economy in Africa," MPRA Paper 70237, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2015.
    9. Yogi Joseph & Govind Gopakumar, 2023. "A contingent publicness: Entanglements on buses," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 3010-3026, November.
    10. Matteo Rizzo & Maurizio Atzeni, 2020. "Workers’ Power in Resisting Precarity: Comparing Transport Workers in Buenos Aires and Dar es Salaam," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1114-1130, December.
    11. Héritier Mesa, 2022. "Wage labor and social inequality in Kinshasa's informal economy: A class analysis," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/362624, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. William Baah-Boateng & Eric Twum, 2019. "Economic Complexity and Employment for Women and Youth: The Case of Ghana," Working Papers idrcdprughana, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    13. Adetunji Adeniyi, 2021. "Job Absorption Capacity of Nigeria’s Mining and Quarrying Sector," Journal of Business Administration Research, Journal of Business Administration Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-51, April.
    14. Silvia Bruzzone & Stefano Castriota & Mirco Tonin, 2021. "Points Or Prison? The Effects Of Different Sanctions On Driving Behavior," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 126-140, January.
    15. Alagidede, Paul & Baah-Boateng, William & Nketiah-Amponsah, Edward, 2013. "The Ghanian economy: and Overview," MPRA Paper 109687, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Raunak Gupta, 2024. "Untangling the nexus of entrepreneurship and unemployment: a bibliometric review," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Nevland, Erik A. & Gingerich, Kevin & Park, Peter Y., 2020. "A data-driven systematic approach for identifying and classifying long-haul truck parking locations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 48-59.
    18. Koami M. Midagbodji & Aklesso Y. G. Egbendewe, 2020. "L'accès des jeunes au marché du travail au Togo et au bénin: Une évidence paramétrique et semi‐paramétrique," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(S1), pages 54-67, November.
    19. Dong, Hongming & Zhong, Shiquan & Xu, Shuxian & Tian, Junfang & Feng, Zhongxiang, 2021. "The relationships between traffic enforcement, personal norms and aggressive driving behaviors among normal e-bike riders and food delivery e-bike riders," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 138-146.
    20. Héritier Mesa, 2021. "'We might all live the same life, but we are not the same'. Class and social Position in Kinshasa's second-hand clothing trade," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/313551, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:8:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00695-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.