Thursday, 12th March, 2026
Hon Emmanuel Tobbin
Anyaa-Sowutuom
Mr Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of this honorable House a growing road safety concern in many parts of the country, malfunctioning traffic lights and the dangers they pose to both motorists and pedestrians.
Across Ghana, broken traffic signals have become a common sight, leading to road congestion, confusion among drivers, and an increase in accidents. Traffic lights play a critical role in regulating movement on our roads and ensuring the safety of all road users. However, when they stop working, it creates chaos, particularly at busy intersections where pedestrian crossings become extremely risky. This issue is not only a danger to drivers but also a major threat to school children, the elderly, and traders who depend on safe crossings for their daily activities.
Mr Speaker, while this is a nationwide problem, it has become particularly concerning in AnyaaSowutuom Constituency. Many communities within the Constituency are struggling with malfunctioning traffic lights, which have led to frequent accidents and traffic congestion. In addition, recent demonstrations by residents at Awoshie, Abrantie and Anyaa Last Stop highlight the frustration of the people. The protests reflect the growing fear among residents regarding road safety, especially for school children and pedestrians who struggle to cross busy roads due to speeding vehicles and the lack of proper traffic control. One of the most pressing concerns in Anyaa-Sowutuom is the need for pedestrian footbridges at Odorgonno Senior High School, Anyaa Market and Ablekuma Park. These areas are known for high traffic volumes, making it extremely difficult for pedestrians to cross safely.
Mr Speaker, without pedestrian bridges, people especially students are forced to risk their lives by crossing fastmoving vehicles. Unfortunately, this has led to many accidents, some of which have resulted in tragic fatalities. It is, therefore, necessary to take immediate steps to ensure pedestrian safety in these high-risk zones.
To address these challenges, I recommend the following urgent measures: Nationwide Repair and Maintenance of Traffic Lights:
The Ministry of Roads and Highways, in collaboration with the Department of Urban Roads, must urgently fix broken traffic lights across the country and establish a proper maintenance system.
Enhanced Traffic Management in High-Risk Areas: The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service should deploy officers to regulate traffic at dangerous intersections, particularly in affected communities.
Construction of Footbridges at Odorgonno Senior High School, Anyaa Market and Ablekuma Park: The Ministry of Roads and Highways should prioritise the construction of pedestrian footbridges at these locations to ensure safe crossings.
Public Education on Road Safety: There should be increased awareness campaigns to educate both motorists and pedestrians on the importance of road safety and the proper use of pedestrian crossings.
Mr Speaker, the safety of our roads affects every Ghanaian. While the issue of malfunctioning traffic lights is a nationwide challenge, the situation in Anyaa-Sowutuom demands immediate attention. I, therefore, call on all relevant authorities to act swiftly to address these concerns, repair our traffic signals, and protect the lives of all road users.
Thank you, Mr Speaker for this opportunity.
Hon Richmond Edem Kofi Kpotosu
Ho Central
I rise to comment on the Statement made by our Brother, Mr Tobbin. Although he narrowed it to his Constituency, I can conveniently say that every Region in this country has traffic lights.
The traffic light in itself is to help us use the road civilly, but our inability to control ourselves, especially the drivers—When they see the yellow or the amber blinking, that is when they begin to speed to cross. Is the amber blinking for you to cross or to move out or to stop? That is one thing they do not know. We also have a responsibility to be regulating them. Some of these people, they say, let us go and come back early. In going and coming back early, that is where they cause their accidents.
Therefore, we need to regulate ourselves, be disciplined on the road, otherwise, no matter how effective the traffic lights are, we will still have these accidents on the road. We have to educate ourselves. We have to take a critical look at even the driving schools we have in the country, and how they take us through the tutorials for driving in order to get a better scheme. This is so that when people go through that training and come out, they are well placed to teach and also drive well on the streets.
Mr Speaker, let us take this example. Outside the borders of this country, when we see somebody's feet on the zebra crossing, we stop for the person to cross. But here in Ghana, when they see a person even midway the zebra crossing, that is when they speed. Then we ask which driving rules they are applying. We are all living on one earth, but because of indiscipline, we have these things happening and we are doing it to ourselves, not to anybody. Let us become a disciplined people, a disciplined country, then we can live at peace.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting me this opportunity.
Hon Frederick Addy
Suaman
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement made by my Colleague, Hon Emmanuel Tobbin.
Traffic lights on our roads must be taken care of. When these traffic lights are broken, the way and manner in which accidents occur on our roads is very appalling. According to recent research from GhanaWeb, about 13 per cent of our traffic lights are working. Also 41 per cent of these traffic lights are partially working and 45 per cent are not working at all.
Sometimes when our school children close from school and they are to even cross the road, it poses a lot of danger. Sometimes a student can stand for about an hour before he crosses the road due to faults with traffic lights. When these cars are speeding, they think they are on the right path, regardless who crosses. Sometimes pedestrians are knocked down because the traffic lights are not functioning. Sometimes our policemen are assigned to those joints in order to control traffic when these policemen should have been at a different joint attending to an equally important assignment if these traffic lights were functioning.
Mr Speaker, when we talk about traffic lights and their repairs, it should not be centred only in Accra. Mostly, the moment traffic lights are mentioned, it is assigned to only Accra and sometimes Kumasi. When we go to our region, especially the newly created regions, Western North, for instance, that is where I come from, Wiawso as the regional capital, does not have a traffic light. Not only Wiawso, but when we go to Bibiani, the way population is increasing is becoming too much. So, when they are attending to traffic lights, it should not be only centred in our cities, but also the newly created region, especially Western North.
In my constituency, Suaman, Dadieso as well the population is gradually increasing. We urge the Minister for Roads and Highways to attend to those challenges, so that there will be a free movement on our roads in order not to cause any accident.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for this opportunity. Let me take this opportunity to commend highly my friend and neighbour, Hon Tobbin, the MP for Anyaa-Sowutuom.
Mr Speaker, I am well-versed with some of the issues he is talking about. Particularly, the secondary school in his constituency, Odorgonno Secondary School. A lot of students have lost their lives, just because of the absence of a traffic light at that Odorgonno Secondary School gate. What I am saying is something that has been reported on several occasions, and no action n has been taken whatsoever. We all have issues with traffic lights in our constituencies.
In Weija/Gbawe, there is a place called the Broadcasting Junction. As I speak, the traffic light went off about three or four years now. No action has been taken to remedy how this traffic light went off and nobody has even taken steps to fix it. When we see what is happening with reference to our traffic lights, most are completely non-functional, or are flickering erratically, or sometimes giving the wrong signals. When that happens, it creates a lot of accidents.
The other aspect is that, as we speak, about 2,200 fatalities were recorded in 2023 alone and it was as a result of dysfunctional traffic lights, or the ones which were flickering erratically. Another point that is critical for me is that most pedestrians who are schoolchildren, some are also elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and market traders are disproportionately exposed.
Because the moment the traffic light fails to function, we can understand how our schoolchildren and our children cross. The people with disabilities. We see somebody with a walking stick or crutches and is now compelled to run because the driver who is coming at this person is not sensitive to the person's physical nature. When we have an 83-year-old person who perhaps even has issues with their sight, that is when we see that a driver is coming at such a person. If we do not take steps to correct most of these traffic lights, the incidence of fatalities would abound even more.
This is how it is even more of a problem. Most traffic lights are connected to the national grid. The moment there is dumsor, it means that traffic lights are also on dumsor. They cease to function. In these modern times, when I had the opportunity of visiting Barcelona and seeing what artificial intelligence (AI) is doing, we would expect that we should be working towards solar, and that when there is no electricity, traffic lights should not be connected to national grid, then when dumsor happens the traffic light also goes off. This is a critical point, and we need to look at it. There is so much dependency on national grid for the supply of power to traffic lights. We should depart from that.
Mr Speaker, there is another aspect; vandalism and theft. People go and steal the copper wire and battery units that are supposed to support the traffic lights. When it is time for traffic lights to work, they are not able to work because people have just gone to steal copper wires. All of these are things to consider so that we change the narrative. When we even give contracts to road contractors to build or construct roads, what is involved in those contracts should be revisited. We should revisit road contracts to ensure that when we give a contract to a road contractor and they are fixing it, which includes a traffic light, we should ensure that the maintenance of that traffic light is upheld.
The moment a traffic light is dysfunctional—just like we have the lifts, although the lifts here, most of them are not working— we should have phone numbers embossed on those traffic lights, connecting the road contractors. The moment the traffic light ceases to perform or function, the road contractor is called to come and fix the traffic light. I think that traffic light is a matter we should consider seriously. We should not look at it from only Hon Tobin’s point of view. Every district should have a system or a structure managing its traffic lights. We should empower road contractors and ensure that contracts that are signed with reference to traffic lights are managed and maintained properly.
Mr Speaker, let me go back to Hon Tobin and Odorgonno Senior High School. It is a major problem, Mr Speaker, let us take action on this matter. No student who has gone to school should lose his or her life just because of the recklessness of a driver and the absence of a traffic light.
Mr Speaker, with this, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you once again.
Hon Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor
South Dayi
Mr Speaker, let me commend Hon Tobin for this because it is such a major crisis on our roads.
Often, the contracts that we award for the construction of highways come with the installation of road infrastructure, which includes the installation of traffic lights, street lights, and road markings. The road markings are not often done after the road is done. The street lights are not often provided; it takes the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition to go back and get MPs to buy poles to install street lights.
Then, the traffic lights are sometimes installed, but as soon as they break down in the first instance, that is the end. As I speak, the entire Eastern Corridor, the stretch that covers my Constituency from Asikuma to Kpeve, which is about 18.9 km, has no single traffic light. One of my major communities, Peki Tsame, where we have the government hospital, is located to the left of the highway when we are driving from Accra, and the community is mainly sited at the right-hand side. So, there is brisk movement of the people across the highway to access the hospital.
Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a major accident involving a knockdown of some of the pedestrians from the community, sometimes even patients. And the community has been struggling. We have been calling for the installation of traffic lights. The Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) is not paying heed to this. At the intersection within the district capital, which is Kpeve itself, there is a need for the installation of a traffic light. It is not done, and there have been accidents as a result. When we get to Asikuma, which is like the nerve centre for the Eastern Region and the Volta Region, we have two security barriers. In fact, three barriers: the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) barrier, the Customs barrier, and the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC).
Now, the Forestry Commission has brought its checkpoint, yet there is no traffic light, and accidents continue to happen at the Asikuma junction. So, the installation of traffic lights is such a major call. Mr Speaker, what we have forgotten is that it is not the speed ramps that check speeds, and it is not the rumble ramps; it is rather traffic lights. Because often, when every reasonable driver sees that the traffic light is red, they will stop. They will slow down and stop for the green to come on before they continue. If we see a traffic light from afar, it is visible, illuminated, and we are educated about it. But instead of getting traffic lights to work, we would rather want to mount speed ramps, and when a driver is a first timer on such a major road and is not aware that there is such a major speed ramp, they would rather get involved in an accident. This is because they rush into it, crash into it, and an accident occurs.
So, Mr Speaker, this is a very simple Statement, but it is such a major Statement that I think, if you would accept my prayer, it should be referred to the Committee on Roads and Transportation for them to look at. So that where it is critical that these traffic lights are replaced, there will be a major call from Parliament directed at the Ministry of Transport or Roads and Highways to act as a matter of urgency. In consideration of this Statement, if it is determined that it is the metro assemblies that should have some responsibility, then the assemblies can be directed. Because it appears we do not even know who should sponsor the installation of the traffic lights. Therefore, we think that for maintenance, the assemblies will do it, and the assemblies think that the Road Fund officials will do it.
The Road Fund officials think that the Minister of Transport will be responsible, or the National Road Safety Authority will do it. So, the traffic light breaks down, and we do not know whose responsibility it is to go and maintain it. I pray that you refer this Statement to the appropriate Committee, for them to look at it quickly, so that Parliament can give some directives in this matter. Because it will be a major source of ensuring that safety on our roads improves.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
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