Commission intensifies campaign on road safety

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Bolgatanga
March 31
THE National Road Safety Commission has intensified its nation-wide campaign against road traffic accidents in the country. 
The commission has, therefore, called on regional co-ordinating councils, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, as well as other stakeholders in the road sector to join the commission to combat the increasing spate of road traffic accidents.
The acting Executive Secretary of the National Road Safety Commission, Mr John Noble Appiah, announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting at Bolgatanga.
He stated that road safety should be seen as everyone's responsibility, stressing that if drivers were trained properly, they could contribute more positively to the reduction in road traffic accidents and their related consequences.
Mr Appiah said road accidents cost Ghana 1.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, adding that 42 per cent of people who died in Ghana through road accidents were pedestrians.
He noted that Ghana’s vision of becoming a tourism destination could be shattered if the increasing rate of road accidents was not curtailed.
“In a country where there is a high rate of road accidents, you cannot attract tourists,” he said.
Mr Appiah called on all Ghanaians to become advocates of road safety wherever they found themselves.
He stated that the commission was aware of the ongoing educational programmes on road safety in basic schools, adding that stakeholders in the industry were in the process of coming up with a comprehensive standard syllabi for the teaching of road safety in schools.
According to him, the commission intended to hold a meeting with all political parties with the view to impressing upon them to advise their followers on traffic regulations to keep them abreast of road signs and ensure safety on the roads.
The Upper East Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kwaku Bempah, said in 2007, the police recorded 153 motor accidents in the region some of which caused 56 deaths and left 116 others sustaining injuries.
He said speeding, wrong overtaking and the disregard for road signs were some of the factors which contributed to road accidents in the area.
ASP Bempah stated that strategic measures had been put in place to check road users as a measure of reducing the rate of accidents this year.
The Regional Co-ordinator of the National Road Safety Commission, Mr Alex Ayeta, said arrangements had been made with all the stakeholders to educate drivers in the region on traffic regulations to keep them abreast of road signs to ensure safety on the roads.