Road Accidents Claims 84 Lives Between January And May

Eighty-four people died through 385 recorded road accidents in the Central Region between January and May, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has said.

The accidents, which involved 597 vehicles, left 678 people with various degrees of injury, Ms Linda Annan, Acting Central Regional Manager of the NRSC disclosed this when the commission embarked on a road safety education campaign at the Tantre lorry station to educate drivers on the need to be good road users.

It formed part of a 16-day road safety and health screening campaign being undertaken by the Grace Multi-Medianet Service, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in collaboration with the NRSC and the Ghana Police Service on the theme “Look out for each other on the Road to Save Lives”.

Ms Annan said in the same period in 2017, 451 recorded road crashes killed 104 people and injured 726 others with 160 pedestrian knockdowns in the region.

According to her, though the figures had reduced, it was still not encouraging as Ghana looked to achieve zero tolerance for road accidents and called on all stakeholders to play their respective roles to make that dream a reality.

Ms Annan noted that human error continued to be the major contributory factor to road crashes and advised motorists to be extra careful and look out for other road users on the roads.

She said the NRSC would continue to collaborate with all stakeholders to the point where there would be no accidents on the road.

Inspector Nicholas Oppong Twumasi, Regional Public Relations Officer of the MTTD urged leaders of the various lorry stations to ensure that all drivers who operated from their stations had genuine driving licenses.

He lamented on how some politicians and other high profile personalities in the society interfered in the work of the Police and said that worked against the effective implementation of the law.

“We have always had case of some politicians, pastors, assembly members and other personalities come in to plead on behalf of offenders when we want to allow the law to work. This has contributed to the indiscipline that we see on our roads” he added.

Mr Richard Agyeman, Regional Secretary of the NRSC advised motorists to do proper maintenance and always look out for faults before moving their vehicles.

He advised them to also desist from wrongful overtaken, over speeding, fatigue driving, drunk driving and all other things that could cause accidents on the road.

Mrs Yaa Kunadu Johnson, a worker from Grace Multi-Media explained that the rate at which accidents occurred on the roads in and the number of people who died of accidents, was alarming, hence, the decision to embark on the campaign to raise awareness

She said similar campaign was being held in the Eastern, Western and Ashanti Regions respectively to throw more light on road safety.

She admonished the general public to observe road signs, consider themselves as pedestrians and walk with care and asked drivers to also drive carefully at the right places.

Some of the drivers were not happy about the poor nature of some of the roads that they plied on, and called on the authorities to as a matter of urgency repair them.

Source: GNA