A serious but silent cause of road accident in the country which has not caught the attention of drivers, passengers, and the National Road Safety Commission, is movies shown in vehicles.
In 2012, the Mayor of Accra Metropolitan Assembly AMA, Mr. Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, announced to the general public, instructing all buses or vehicles that show movies in their cars to desist. Since enforcement of the said directive was weak, majority of the long journey buses continue to show movies in their cars.
First, when the movie is being shown in the bus, it soaks up the total attention of the passengers, so when the driver is over speeding, the passengers don’t realize it and to warn the driver to maintain an optimal speed. The driver therefore does not get any form of caution, prompting or criticism from anyone (passengers) to check his or her speed.
Secondly, when the movie is showing, the sound it generates makes it impossible for the passengers and the driver alike to hear or detect any faulty sound the car’s engine produces so that the car would be stopped and the fault rectified.
My recent experience in a long journey commercial bus has brought to my attention, the above two reasons about movies shown in vehicles. I travelled from Accra to Kumasi. All the passengers (including myself) were busy enjoying a Kumawood movie featuring Agya Koo and Lil Win. It was so hilarious that we were all laughing our heads off; only for one old man who was seated quietly in the car, started shouting (in Twi).
“Driver! Driver! Can’t you hear an unusual sound coming from the engine! Driver stop the car! I say stop!” Everybody became alarmed! The mate quickly minimized the volume of the sound from the movie only for all and sundry to hear some kputsu, kputsu, kputsu, sound coming out of the car.