NRSC says 500 persons die in 2013 third quarter road crashes

A total of 506 people were killed in the third quarter of this year through road accidents bringing the total number of casualties from January to September to 1,625 nationwide.

During the period (July to September), 3,278 people were injured in a total of 3,719 road crashes involving 5,476 vehicles.

Mrs May Obiri –Yeboah, Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), who disclosed this on Friday expressed concern on the rising trend of road crashes.

There is the need for all stakeholders to cooperate and double their efforts in ensuring that the situation changed for the better because despite all their efforts to minimize road crashes the impact had been very minimal, she said.

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said this when opening a two-day training of trainers’ workshop on “crash investigation” for road engineers, enforcement agencies and transport operators from the southern sector at Agona Swedru in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region.

She said it is the Commission’s policy to seek the causes of road crashes and come out with policies that will prevent such crashes adding that their investigation is not for prosecution purposes.

The stakeholders have, therefore, been brought together to brainstorm and ensure that the best practices are implemented to help change the current situation, she said.

Mr Ludwig Anang Hesse, a Transportation Consultant, said transport impact assessment should be done when planning any development projects to ensure the designing of safe roads.

He urged the Ghana Highway Authority to fix crash barriers which are to prevent accident vehicles from falling over adding that the existing weakened structures must be restored.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Angwubutoge Awuni, the Director General of the Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD), expressed worry that accident rate is still high in the country with the month of September recording the highest number and called on all stakeholders to do more to help arrest the trend.

Source: GNA