By Eric Appah Marfo/Stanley Senya
Accra, May 25, GNA—Mr David Osafo Adonteng, Acting Director-General, National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has commended a team of six pupils for developing a road safety device for children.
He also advised other children to take Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education seriously and develop innovations to solve problems.
Mr Adonteng made the comments on during an engagement with the “The Genius Six”, an all-female team of pupils from the Uaddara Basic School, 4 Garrison Education Centre, Kumasi, for developing the Illuminated Child-Road Safety Device (IC-RSD) to enhance road safety for children.
The meeting was also attended by Liberia’s Road Safety Secretariat member who are on study tour of Ghana.
The innovation won the 2022 pilot of the Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Prize (GSTEP) challenge that provides students in Junior High School with practical knowledge and skills in STEM and hones their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities through a challenge prize process.
The Acting Director-General said the Authority was concerned about the safety of children and had developed several innovations to help them cross the road with ease.
“Most of the children leave home and don’t return. It is very horrible when you go and see those who don’t die but get injured at the hospitals, with limbs sometimes amputated and they don’t become the normal human beings we all expect again,” he added.
Mr Adonteng said the NRSA, through engagements with stakeholders had introduced other devices such as speed humps and adequate road signs, thereby reducing child fatalities by about 50 per cent.
Mr Richard Kojo Adomako, Teacher and Facilitator of the GSTEP programme with “the Genius 6”, said the close proximity of Uaddara Basic School to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital – Accident and Emergency Unit, made the school children vulnerable to road crushes and knockdowns.
He said ambulances, commercial vehicles and private cars that plied the road normally drove at a high speed and knocked down school children in the process, hence the decision to develop the device to curb the situation.
Mr Adomako explained that in using the device, one was to activate the siren to alert the driver of an incoming vehicle. “The user is then to remove the IC-RSD racket and position it in such a way that it displayed the ‘STOP’sign.”
“When the cars stop, cross the road safely to the other side and plug the racket into the other IC-RSD mounted at the other side. In case you have any challenge with the racket, the’Baby Arm’ can also be used,” he said.
He said the group was modifying the device to make disability friendly.
Mr Adomako expressed appreciation for the acceptance of the innovation and called for more support to enhance their work.
Lieutenant Colonel Z.B.V Akatey, 4 Garrison Education Officer, Central Command, said the Military High Command was elated over the feat accomplished by the pupils and had begun processes to patent the device for the school’s benefit in case of its commercialisation in future.
Liberia’s delegation praised the pupils and lauded Ghana for being a leader and an example to many countries in the area of road safety.
The visitors said it was for this and other reasons that they visited the NRSA to tap into its rich knowledge on road safety management and apply same in Liberia.
GNA