Easter road safety campaign launched
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has launched the road safety education and sensitisation campaign meant to curb road crashes and fatalities during this year's Easter season.
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The campaign will see officials of the NRSA work together with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, transport unions and other stakeholders to enforce road traffic regulations and ensure that persons who flout the laws are sanctioned.
In particular, the NRSA officers and police will mount operations on major roads and highways that carry traffic to revelling destinations and key events centres, including Easter conventions, to check speeding by drivers.
The Director-General of the NRSA, David Osafo-Adonteng, who launched the campaign last Friday, stressed that the NRSA and police MTTD would be ruthless in dealing with persons whose misbehaviour had the potential to cause road crashes.
Context
Statistics from NRSA show that excessive speeding is the significant contributor to road traffic casualties, accounting for 39.8 per cent of fatalities and 32.2 per cent of injuries in the country.
The statistics further indicate that most of the road crashes and fatalities occur during festive seasons such as Easter and Christmas.
The increase in road crashes during festive seasons is mostly attributed to bad driver behaviour such as speeding and drink-driving.
For the past few years, the Stay Alive Campaign was launched to rally all stakeholders in the road transport sector and the enforcement agencies to sensitise drivers, pedestrians and other road users to the need to observe road traffic regulations.
Worrying situation
In spite of the fact that the NRSA doubled its efforts with stakeholders to promote a culture of responsible road use through road safety education and awareness campaigns, crashes, injuries and deaths have increased this year.
NRSA statistics indicate that in the first two months of this year, 2,260 road crash cases were reported, involving 3,910 vehicles, with 369 fatalities, 2,552 injuries and 381 pedestrian knockdowns.
Compared with the same period last year (January and February 2023), 2,249 crashes were recorded with 3,857 vehicles involved, 330 persons killed, 2,502 persons injured and 382 pedestrian knockdowns.
This shows an increase of 0.49 per cent for crashes, 1.37 per cent for vehicles involved and two per cent for persons injured.
Mr Osafo-Adonteng said it was against that backdrop that the NRSA and its stakeholders were poised to enforce road traffic regulations.
Key actions
He said as part of the enforcement exercise, there would be intensification of pre-trip operational inspections at major transport terminals to ensure that vehicles and drivers departing from major terminals met the minimum safety requirements for the respective journeys.
He added that there would be a special education and enforcement exercise on the N6 highway, from Nsawam through Suhum, Bunso junction leading up to Kwahu.
Also, he said there would be a dedicated education exercise for travellers at the Linda Dor and Paradise rest stops on the Kumasi road on Good Friday, March 29, 2024.
"This exercise aims at empowering over 20,000 travellers with important road safety tips to ensure safety during the Easter travels and period," he said.
Mr Osafo-Adonteng also said the authority had partnered RANA motors to offer free tyre checks and selected services for vehicles at the rest stops during the exercise.
He added that the authority had restarted the special exercise to clamp down on unprescribed vehicle lamps.
"These lamps which are prohibited by Regulation 65 of the LI 2180 have become a risk to safe driving at night. The authority shall, therefore, resume enforcement nationwide from April 1, 2024," he said.
