Ghana records more than 16000 road crashes by October ending
The Minister for Transport, Mr Fifi Kwetey, has stated that at the end of October this year, 16,053 vehicles had been involved in road crashes, killing 1,766 persons.
Additionally, 9,046 people were injured.
In a speech, read on his behalf at the National Public Transport Day, in Accra, the Minister said 2,323 pedestrian knock-downs were also recorded.
He said that the situation was not looking good, especially against the projected fatalities for the year.
The day was organised by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) in collaboration with the Ghana Insurance Association (GIA) under the theme, “Ensuring Safety on our roads before, during and after the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary General Election, Christmas and New Year 2017 Festivities”.
The day was instituted in 2009 to observe the day annually to reflect on the quality of the public road transportation services and also to create the opportunity for policy makers, politicians, and civil society actors to mirror the conditions of public road transport services and opportunity for improvement.
In the previous years, the Day was observed at lorry terminals throughout the country to educate and sensitise drivers, passengers and other road users on the need to keep the road safe, but this year, the organisers opted to observe it with other partners, including transport operators, especially the commercial passenger transport operators.
Mr Kwetey said Ghana records an annual average of 1,800 deaths through road traffic crashes, out of which, 75 per cent affect men often within the ages of 18 and 55 years.
“Commercial passengers transport operators/vehicle-related deaths are estimated at 21 per cent of all road traffic deaths,” he explained.
He, therefore, commended the NRSC for the initiative which he said, had brought about reforms that had been pioneered in recent years.
The Minister said the road Traffic Regulations, (L.I. 2180) 2012 had incorporated many of these new ideas motivated by public transport day-related dialogues and advocacy initiatives.
“Today, the Road Traffic regulations, L.I. 2180, 2012 makes mandatory the use of retro-reflective tapes for some categories of vehicles, mandatory refresher training for commercial drivers, installation of speed limiters, registration of commercial vehicle drivers’ permits,” he said.
“While we admit that, some of these ideas are yet to see implementation, we need to appreciate the exercise of the existence of the appropriate legal environment to support the implementation process.”
Mr Kwetey announced that the Government was taking steps to activate regulation 121 of the L.I. 2180, which required that operators of commercial vehicles should be issued with road transport operator’s license by the Ministry or its accredited agent upon satisfying some conditions and or guidelines.
He said the private sector today led the commercial passenger transport service delivery and it was important to help build their capacity to the levels of the Metro Mass Transit and the Inter-City STC for public good.
Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, the Executive Director of NRSC, said this year like all election periods, had been disturbing and stressful for all road users, road safety advocates and managers, as the projected traffic related deaths recorded so far had exceeded the target.
The projected figure is 1440, but as at the end of the third quarter they have recorded 1766 traffic-related deaths.
That situation, Mrs Obiri-Yeboah, said required more advocacy and education for best road safety practices from all fronts.
“This election and festive season, the Commission and its stakeholders are rolling out programmes, including lorry terminal and toll booth education, media engagement and sensitisation to address issues but not limited to high travel speeds, drink driving and fatigue driving,” she said.
Ms Aretha Duku, the GIA President, called on all stakeholders to be ambassadors to campaign for motorists to respect other road users.
Source: GNA