Nana Akua Ansaah, Western Regional Director of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has hinted that due to measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the Authority is rigorously embarking on community education to sensitize the public on road safety precautions to save precious lives before, during and after the general elections and Christmas.
She said, the community education would be followed with intensive enforcement on the road whereas they are also prompting the Highways Authority (GHA), Feeder and Urban Roads Departments to maintain the roads to make them accident free.
She explained that pedestrian knockdowns saw an increase while road fatalities saw a decrease within the region according to the report for the half year, a situation which has necessitated community education.
Speaking in an interview with Spice Fm in Takoradi, the Director mentioned that the Authority was mobilizing itself to descend on all stakeholders who would not be diligent in their operations as we prepare for elections and Christmas which often sees a lot of travels.
She bemoaned the situation where members of the public call the police when there was an accident instead of calling the fire service who have the equipment to save the victims from the situation and called on the public to contact the fire service before contacting the police whenever there was an accident.
She noted that the Regulations that established the hitherto Road Safety Commission did not allow it to impose sanctions to motor traffic offenders and hence pushed for more powers to become an authority to enable it place sanctions on perpetrators so as to deter them from perpetrating those actions on the road.
Chief Superintendent Richard Appiah, Western Regional Commander of the Motor Transport and Traffic Division (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service called on the public to join the fight against road carnages by reporting drivers who flout the road safety regulations to be brought to book.
He mentioned fatigue driving, drunk driving, poor road maintenance, over speeding, overloading, overtaking, wrongful parking, lack of maintenance on vehicles and making calls while driving among others as factors that cause carnage on the roads.
He enlightened that drivers must take rest every 3-4 hours drive they cover for at least twenty (20) minutes for stretching before they continue their journey to avoid tired or fatigue driving which has been noted as a major cause for accidents on our roads.
He lamented that overtaking, especially at unauthorized routes on the roads, lack of maintenance on the vehicles especially the suspension system and faulty windscreen wipers which leaves the windscreen to be blurred when it rains and making drivers unable to see their way through properly.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
