Analysis: The Ghanaian Auto Mechanic

One important element or component mostly neglected by the various researchers in their attempt to fine the cause(s) of road accident in developing countries is the mechanic who repairs the various vehicles before the vehicles hits the road. Though many attempted to suggest that a vehicle which is not roadworthy is a source of accident, they failed to propose means by which this could be rectified in a holistic way. Laws could be enacted to prevent vehicles not roadworthy from operating on the roads but between the two gaps the mechanic plays a significant role in preventing such road accidents occurring from the vehicle factor. This is what this study seeks to address.

The Ghanaian Auto Mechanic
The auto mechanic plays a key role in the transport
If the mechanic through negligence or ignorance performs poor and unsatisfactory job on the vehicle, there is high risk of system failure with road accident as one the end results. The mechanic plays an important role under the vehicle factor of accident causation. The driver has less to do if he is not an auto mechanic. In many developing countries such as Ghana, most mechanics are in the informal sector (Maxwell, et al., 2013)[23]. These mechanics operates in local garages and they are popularly called “wayside or roadside fitters”. This is due to the fact that their repair workshops are not well organized but rather a sort of self-made shelters under tress by the roadsides or on a piece of land rented or purchased from a landlord. Majority of the mechanics in most parts of the country operates in isolated places. However, some operates in clusters such as those in Suame-Magazine in Kumasi, the second largest city in
This could be seen from the representations in Table 1.1 and figure 1. The response confirms the general views of most Ghanaians that the automotive repair work is meant for the male gender hence only few females are interested in the field. The age distribution of the respondents ranges between below 18years and above 30years. The dominate age is above 30years with 57.40% and the least represented age below 18years with the percentage of 2.84. This could be seen in figure 1.1 and table 1.1 respectively. From table 1.1, the marital status of the respondents is represented with 59.66% for the married, 38.86% were single, 0.57% divorced and 0.91% were widowed. Considering the lucrative nature of the job and the age limits of the respondents, one expects most of the respondents to be married as per the culture of the country hence the large number of the married is not