Reducing road traffic accidents

THE campaign on road safety seems to be falling on deaf ears as innocent people continue to lose their lives through avoidable reckless driving and disregard for road traffic regulations by motorists.

IT is very worrying to see motorists flouting road traffic regulations in the full glare of police officers every passing day. And interestingly such people manage to go unpunished!

STATISTICS from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) shows that Ghana loses over $165 million annually, representing 1.6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to road traffic accidents.

MOTOR traffic offense statistics for the third quarter of last year, 2009, revealed that in Accra alone, 353 persons were killed through road crashes and 2,579 were injured as against the second quarter where 336 and 2,255 were killed and injured respectively.

THIS year we have witnessed some horrific scenes on our roads. This has led to the death of over 500 people nationwide. Indeed this is regrettable.

LAST Saturday, it was reported in the media that 28 people had died in two separate accidents at Attakrom, near Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region, and Asenema, near Adukrom in the Eastern Region.
AT Attakrom, a village between Babatokuma and Dawadawa, 16 people including a child less than one year, died on the spot and seven others later at the Kintampo Government Hospital.

The accident occurred when two 207 Benz buses were involved in a head-on collision on the main Kintampo-Tamale trunk road.

IF the above cited cases are anything to go by then we must all have cause to worry because countless number of innocent lives are being lost through road accidents.

TODAY therefore seizes this opportunity to make a passionate appeal to NRSC to intensify, widen and broaden its road safety campaigns in the country.

FROM what we are experiencing on our roads now, it looks as if we have relaxed on the sensitisation programs and campaigns.

These days we rarely hear of any campaigns on road safety in our mass media. What is happening NRSC?

AGAINST this background, the paper charges the police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) to rise up to the challenge by monitoring motorists, especially 207 Benz buses and our trotro drivers some of who drive as if they own our roads.

Today believes that if the police MTTU steps its efforts in our drive to reduce the high incidence of road accidents in the country we will definitely be making headways.

NOBODY knows who would become a victim to some of these avoidable death traps we set for ourselves on our roads. It is in this wise that the paper challenges passengers and commuters to call drivers and motorists to order when they over-speed or overtake wrongly on the roads.

WE are all stakeholders and should not live the campaign to only the police and NRSC. We must all get involved now to save lives.