By Lydia Kukua Asamoah
Accra, Sept 8, GNA – The 2022 edition of the Ghana Drivers and Road Safety Awards has been launched in Accra to inspire drivers to ensure safe driving to help reduce the carnage on the roads.
The awards will see career drivers competing for honours in seven categories; the Intercity category, made up of bus drivers operating from city to city; the Intracity, – bus drivers operating within cities; and the Taxi Driver Category.
There is also the categories of Ride-hailing drivers; School bus drivers; Corporate drivers, and the Heavy vehicles drivers.
A mobile platform that allows drivers to access free continual road safety education on their mobile phones is being deployed.
Participants are expected to complete a mandatory refresher training on a digital platform and pass various quizzes to progress through the levels to being crowned the overall best driver.
Th Ghana Driver and Road Safety Foundation (GDRSF), the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Motor Traffic Transport Department of Ghana Police Service, and the Goil Ghana Limited, and Transaid UK, are organising the award, the third in the series of the annual event.
The launch was on the theme: “The Role of Information Technology in Promoting Safer Road Users.”
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, whose speech was read on his behalf at the launch, lauded the collaboration by stakeholders and adopting technology for the award scheme, to train commercial vehicle drivers to drive safely on the roads.
That, he said, would contribute to the national agenda of reducing road traffic crashes and casualties.
The Vice President expressed excitement at the extension of award scheme to recognising regions, which had demonstrable commitments towards road safety.
“This provides grounds to challenge regional ministers and co-ordinating councils, civil society organisations, politicians, regional road safety stakeholders and the media fraternity to embrace road safety as part of their regional developmental agenda,” he stated.
He commended the NRSA and the GDRSA for the initiative and encouraged drivers to participate fully in competition to ensure public safety.
Madam Freda Frimpong, the Director of Partnerships and Project, GDRSF, said the awards complemented the efforts of the agencies mandated with driver training, certification, and road safety enforcement.
It also seeks to contribute to the United Nations SDG target 3.6, which targets to halve deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.
“The awards will see career drivers pitching to win funding for a road safety project in their communities as part of the overall winning package. This goes to the core of raising road safety ambassadors and champions amongst drivers,” she said.
Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport, who was represented by his Deputy, applauded the NRSA and GDRSA for instituting the programme to reward deserving drivers as a motivation to be good behaviour.
“If these activities are sustained, they will considerably minimise the rate of crashes on our roads,” he said.
Mr David Osafo Adonteng, the Acting Director-General , NRSA, reiterated the collaborative efforts by stakeholders to ensure the reduction of road accidents.
Statistics available indicates that the first half of 2022 saw a reduction in road accidents compared to the previous year’s.
GNA