The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) is ramping up measures to address the increasing spate of road crashes and deaths, with a call on the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service to arrest and prosecute offenders of road traffic regulations.
The Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, who has been spearheading a gamut of sensitisation, awareness creation and road safety campaigns across the country, stressed that the time had come for the law to be strictly enforced to ensure safety on the road.
“The footbridges are not there for decorative purposes; they are there for pedestrians to utilise them and be safe. If there is a footbridge and you decide not to use it and cross the road dangerously.
“Where there are no footbridges, there will be no justification to arrest anyone, but where there are footbridges, and you refuse to use them, you must be prosecuted. I call on the police MTTD to start arresting and prosecuting people who refuse to use footbridges,” Mr Amaliba stressed.
Mr Amaliba made the call at the launch of the Safe Crossing, Safe Lives pedestrian safety campaign held at Madina Zongo in the La Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly (LaNMMA) in the Greater Accra Region on October 28.
The Safe Crossing, Safe Lives campaign is an initiative of the Greater Accra Regional NRSA aimed at promoting safe pedestrian behaviour, encouraging proper use of footbridges and other designated crossing facilities, with the ultimate goal of reducing pedestrian-related road crashes and fatalities.
The campaign is particularly targeted at high-risk locations in the Greater Accra Region such as Adentan, Madina, Lapaz, and Weija.
Particularly, he emphasised that the police MTTD must work in collaboration with the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce compliance with the use of footbridges and clear traders from pedestrian walkways to prevent pedestrian knockdowns.
Context
On October 24, the Daily Graphic carried a story on its front page highlighting the increasing encroachment on road pavements and other infrastructure by petty traders and hawkers within the Greater Accra Region that had become a major road safety concern.
A pedestrian crossing the road under the Kaneshie footbridge
Encroachment on the road infrastructure is problematic because it results in pedestrian knockdowns, which account for 33 per cent of deaths from reported road crashes, according to the NRS.
The Daily Graphic’s analysis of road traffic statistics from the NRSA revealed that over the past 35 years (1991 to 2025), 63,599 persons died from road crashes across the country, with about 20,988 of those deaths resulting from pedestrian knockdowns.
Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I 2180) make it mandatory for pedestrians to use footbridges that have been provided at designated sections of highways to prevent road crashes. Section 154(3) of L.I 2180 states: “A pedestrian who fails to use a footbridge or an underpass where one is provided, commits an offence.”
Section 154(10) of L. I 2180 also states: “A person who contravenes this regulation commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than five penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than seven days or to both.”
However, for the past five years, the Daily Graphic has published a number of special reports on how footbridges were left fallow while pedestrians risked their lives on the road.
Some of the stories which were published on August 6, 2020 – “Footbridges on 'holiday' - Pedestrians put lives at risk on roads”; December 15, 2020 – “Footbridges on holiday: let’s act to save lives”; and October 28, 2024 – “Fallow footbridges - Pedestrians preyed upon on roads”, painted a grim picture about the continuous loss of lives through jaywalking at footbridges.
Enforcement
Against this backdrop, Mr Amaliba stressed that the police MTTD must go all-out to enforce the law on the use of footbridges to prevent fatal crashes.
The NRSA Director-General said road safety was a shared responsibility, which was why the authority was working with the police MTTD and other stakeholders to address the carnage on the country’s roads.
For his part, an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician at National Ambulance Services (NAS), Dr Daniel Asare, said it was important for all stakeholders to work together to prevent pedestrian knockdowns and other forms of road crashes because of the multiplier effect it had on the country.
He said apart from the loss of loved ones, road crashes had dire economic implications for the country and also impacted negatively on the emergency response system.
Dr Asare said while the government’s investment in ambulances had improved the emergency response time compared to what the situation was a few years ago, road crashes remained a major concern.
“One severe pedestrian crash can take one ambulance for several hours from the scene to the hospital.
During that period, a pregnant woman in critical need of healthcare, a person with stroke, or a child with severe asthma has to wait with their life on the line for the next available ambulance,” he explained.
“What members of the public need to know is that footbridge use is better and safer than an ambulance; prevention is better than cure.
When you cross safely, you are not only saving your life; you are saving the emergency response system for other people who need it to survive,” he said.
