There has been an increase of road accidents in Kenya, with authorities attributing 80% of these fatal crashes to human behaviour (careless driving).

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen last month announced a raft of new measures to curb the road carnage.

Some of this measures included the return of National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) officers on roads, mandatory re-testing of all PSV drivers before renewal of license, as well as mandatory medical testing for all drivers before issuance of new licenses.

Already, some accidents have shocked the nation, including the one where 11 Kenyatta University students perished, several others injured when their bus collided with a trailer in Maungu, Voi Constituency.

But in Ghana, a road safety official has created a storm by attributing a unique cause to road accidents among men in Ghana.

Pearl Adusu Sateckla, Ghana’s Public Relations Manager for the Road Safety Authority, claimed that a significant number of accidents involving men stem from a distraction termed “Big Nyash.”

During an interview on Citi FM’s Auto Show on March 28, Sateckla explained that men in Ghana often lose focus while driving due to their fascination with women who possess large buttocks.

She emphasized that this distraction leads to a lack of concentration contributing to the high accident rates among men.

She also acknowledged that while occasional instances of distraction by “Big Nyash” might occur among women as well, men generally exhibit higher rates of inattentiveness on the road.

Sateckla’s remarks quickly sparked reactions on social media with users expressing a mix of amusement and skepticism.

No study

In response, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) clarified that it is yet to conduct a study specifically on the impact of women’s buttocks on driver inattentiveness.

NRSA says Sateckla’s assertion was only based on feedback from some road users, including drivers and global examples.

“While the authority confirms that distracted driving or driver inattentiveness constitutes a major threat to road traffic crashes, the authority has yet to conduct a specific study on ‘women buttocks’ as a source of driver inattentiveness except for the feedback from other road users, including drivers and global examples,” the authority said in the statement.