Key stakeholders in the road safety sector have held a crunch meeting to discuss urgent steps to address the escalating road crashes and deaths in the country.
Road crashes, injuries and deaths (CIDs) reached an all-time high last year, after the country recorded 2,949 deaths, up from the 2000 annual average deaths over the past decade.
Between January and September this year, provisional figures by the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD) revealed that over 10,000 crashes occurred involving over 17,000 cars and resulting in the deaths of 2,151 people, with 12,230 others sustaining injuries.
Worryingly, pedestrians constitute 33 per cent of the deaths from road crashes while motorcycle riders accounted for 37 per cent of the deaths.
It is within that context that the NRSA organised the crunch meeting on October 14 to discuss how to strengthen institutional collaboration, improve security features on the roads, and ensure coordinated enforcement of road safety regulations.
Participants in the meeting were drawn from key stakeholder institutions including the NRSA, ministries of Roads and Highways, Transport, as well as the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), National Security Secretariat, the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), the Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).
Action now
Describing the road crashes situation in the country as alarming and concerning, the Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, stressed that the time had come for concerted national efforts to deal with the challenge.
"The statistics we have are even conservative because not all crashes are reported; many deaths occur but are not reported. Road crashes kill us more now than sicknesses, and that is why we must be concerned about it," he said.
Mr Amaliba said some of the triggers of road crashes included malfunctioning traffic lights, broken road signs, faded road markings, obstructed walkways, construction material on roads, motorcycles on footbridges, and bad driver behaviours.
"As the Director-General of the NRSA, I want to state here that I am prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that we reduce road crashes.
“If holding stakeholders in the road sector accountable and doing the right thing as far as road safety is concerned will lead to me being sacked from office, I prefer it that way," he stressed.
Enforcement
The Director of Education, Research and Training at the police MTTD, ACP Alexander Kwaku Obeng, said road safety was about enforcement and the police needed the support of other stakeholders to succeed in enforcing road safety regulations.
"If road markings are faded, it will be difficult for the police to enforce the law in that regard; this is why we are happy that there are plans to upgrade roads and incorporate more road markings," he said.
ACP Obeng also said the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) needed to rise up to their responsibility of decongesting the roads by taking traders off the pavements.
He stressed that while the police were willing to enforce the law on traders on the pedestrian walkways, political interference made it extremely difficult.
"Enforcement of road traffic regulations had been the weakest link over the years because of human involvement.
The use of technology is what is doing the magic, and that is what we should do more," he said.
Collaboration
The Director of Programmes at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Dr Imurana Mohammed, said the Commission was prepared to collaborate with the NRSA and other stakeholders to extend road safety education and awareness creation to all parts of the country.
He said with its offices spread across the country, the NCCE was well placed to work with the NRSA to instil positive road safety behaviours in citizens.
Other speakers from DVLA, GHA and the GPRTU gave firm assurance that they were willing to play their part in reducing road crashes.
