Speaker pledges support for road safety campaign
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has pledged his commitment to the road safety campaign embarked on by Multimedia Group Ltd to help reduce the rate of carnage on roads.
He noted that road traffic accidents accounted for a high percentage of all deaths recorded in the country annually.
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He made the pledge when a team from the company paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament last Thursday.
Documentary
The team presented copies of its documentary, ‘Crushed’, to the Speaker.
The documentary, according to the team, was part of its contribution to address the increasing number of road accidents in the country.
The documentary, which captures chilling details of how many families have lost loved ones to road accidents, reveals that accidents cost the country about 1.6 per cent of GDP per anum, which in terms of numbers is about $800 million.
Personal experience
He recounted his personal experience in which the seatbelt he wore saved his life in three separate accidents.
“Members of Parliament are always on the move, so I had about three near-fatal accidents but survived because I obeyed one of the guiding rules of a passenger; putting on my seatbelt.”
“On all three occasions, even though I was using Landcruisers, none of them could be recovered but I came out unhurt because the belt held me to the seat,” he said.
Mr Bagbin advised drivers and passengers to always prioritise the use of seatbelts to save lives.
Role of Parliament
The Speaker gave the assurance that he would involve Parliament in this advocacy by tasking not just the committees of Parliament but parliament as a whole to discuss and analyse the current road traffic challenges.
That, he explained, would enable Parliament to come up with proposals that would be implemented by the government in order to curb the growing yet unfortunate trend.
“Personally, what I think I can do to support it, I will do. And I will also want to get the opportunity for the House to, at least, take some action about the matter,” he stated.
Fatality statistics
Statistics at the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that 771 people lost their lives in road-related accidents between January and March this year.
This was an increase of 29.58 per cent over the figure for the same period in 2020, which was 595.
The Head of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, Superintendent of Police Mr Alexander Obeng, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that on the average, nine people died from road accidents on a daily basis.
