A NATIONAL and Regional Road Safety Awards Scheme to reward good drivers and other key stakeholders in the transport industry was launched at the Koforidua main lorry park last Wednesday.
On the theme: “Road safety, a shared collective responsibility,” the scheme would help stem the high rate of motor accidents with the associated fatalities in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Ativor, performed the ceremony on behalf of the sector minister, Mr Mike Allen Hammah, at a ceremony attended by drivers, passengers and other stakeholders of the road sector.
Also present were the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Ransford M. Ninson and the Regional Commander of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent James Sarfo Peprah.
According to Mr Hammah, a national planning committee with membership from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Driver, Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Ghana National Fire Service, the MTTU), municipal and district assemblies and road users, had already been constituted to come out with the modalities for the scheme.
He, however, did not indicate the packages for the scheme and the actual date they would be given out to the award winners.
Mr Hammah said records had indicated that pedestrians and passengers accounted for about 43 and 23 per cent, respectively of the distribution of crash victims.
He noted that what was most worrying was that some of the dead were children knocked down by vehicles.
The socio-economic cost of the fatalities to affected families and the nation, the minister stated, had been huge.
“It is in this direction that the government has taken steps, including the institution of the award scheme to help bring sanity on the roads because about 80 per cent of road accidents are due to human error which can be prevented,” Mr Hammah added.
He said the Ministry of Transport and the NRSC had also recognised the transport unions and other relevant organisations as important stakeholders that would help reduce the motor accidents.
Mr Hammah mentioned some of the organisations and unions such as the Ghana Private Transport Union, the GPRTU, M. PLAZA, Co-operative, Inter-City STC, PROTOA and OA, and called on them to play an active role in that respect.
The Regional Minister, Mr Ofosu Ampofo, said since the region ranked third in road accidents in the country, the Regional Co-ordinating Council in collaboration with the NRSC and other stakeholders had embarked on emergency and enforcement of traffic regulations to help reduce the motor accidents.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo, who attributed most of the motor accidents to reckless driving and the use of faulty vehicles, appealed to the law enforcement agencies to help bring the miscreants to book.
The Regional Police Commander, DCOP Ninsin was happy that motor accidents in the region had reduced drastically in the first half of the year from 616 with 114 deaths as against 748 with 143 deaths recorded in the same period last year.
He commended the Transport Minister and officials of the NRSC as well as other stakeholders who had done their best to make the roads accident free.
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