MTTD, MMDAs must safeguard lives at traffic stops

Some disabled and destitute persons are on the streets begging for alms because there are no social systems to support them.

While they deserve the sympathy and support of the general public, the growing tendency of our unfortunate brothers and sisters, particularly those who are mobility-impaired, to get onto the roads and interfere with the flow of traffic must be discouraged.

Such activities place them in dangerous situations. Those who have to crawl, wheel themselves or be pushed along and in between vehicles face the additional risk of getting run over, because they are usually not visible to drivers, as they are not in the driving view most often.

Moreover, drivers would most likely be concentrating on the traffic signals and not on them as they manoeuvre their way about.

Some people sometimes volunteer advice to those soliciting on the relative safety of staying on the kerbs. Surprisingly, they tend to be adamant.

A few months ago, I received a rude shock at the first traffic stop on the Achimota/37 Road when a physically challenged person in a wheelchair took umbrage with me for advising him to move from the road and stay on the kerb.

I believe that his irritation stemmed from the fact that none of the occupants of the vehicles ahead of mine had given him anything. I sensed that like me, the other drivers felt that giving out money under the circumstances would amount to encouraging the dangerous practice.

I am by this letter drawing the attention of the police and the local authorities to the dangers our brethren court on our roads and highways and the need for sensitisation of the alms seekers, as well as people generally, some of whom unwittingly encourage the practice by offering alms, irrespective of the danger to the soliciting persons.