By Benjamin Adamafio Commey, GNA
Accra, Oct 15, GNA – The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has called for improved emergency response services, stronger enforcement and better road infrastructure to reduce fatalities from road traffic crashes.
Mr Abraham Amaliba, Director-General of the NRSA, said effective collaboration among state institutions, the Police, transport operators and other stakeholders was essential to addressing the country’s road safety challenges.
He made the call at a breakfast meeting with heads and representatives of stakeholder institutions to assess existing interventions, identify gaps and strengthen collective efforts to prevent road crashes.
Mr Amaliba described road crashes as a public health and national security concern, urging state agencies to examine their responsibilities alongside the conduct of drivers and other road users.
He said road safety required a coordinated approach involving four key areas: enforcement, education, engineering and emergency response services.
The Director-General noted that weaknesses in any of the four areas could undermine progress in reducing crashes and called for accountability among institutions responsible for road safety.
Mr Amaliba said authorities must assess whether inadequate road signs, markings, streetlights and other infrastructure deficiencies were contributing to crashes, instead of placing the entire blame on drivers.
“If your emergency relief services are not good, the accidents will happen, people may not die. But the way they carry the human beings to the hospital may lead to their death,” he said.
He also urged stakeholders to intensify preventive measures ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities, when increased travel could heighten road safety risks.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alexander Kwaku Obeng, Director of Education, Research and Training at the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, called for an accelerated deployment of digital technology to enforce road traffic regulations, improve compliance and reduce road crashes.
ACP Obeng said manual enforcement had proved inadequate over the years, making it necessary to adopt automated systems to address dangerous driving behaviours, particularly speeding.
“Manual enforcement has been very weak all these years,” he said.
On what measures the MTTD was taking to improve road safety, ACP Obeng said the department had developed a software to support the digital enforcement of road traffic offences, including speeding, with police officers expected to use personal digital assistants to capture evidence of violations.
He said the approach was intended to improve accountability, reduce delays and address concerns about bribery and corruption associated with manual enforcement.
He also disclosed that authorities had begun issuing caution notices to speeding drivers, accompanied by video evidence of the offences, adding that about 24,000 caution notices had been issued to speeding drivers since the initiative began on September 10.
He said preliminary September figures showed a 9.48 per cent reduction in reported crashes compared with the same period the previous year, while vehicles involved in crashes declined by 12.19 per cent.
Persons injured decreased by 15.02 per cent, while road crash deaths fell by 7.82 per cent, he said, adding that motorcycles involved in crashes had also declined by 7.41 per cent following the intervention.
He attributed the reported reductions partly to targeted enforcement, stressing that speeding remained a major factor in road traffic crashes.
Dr. Imurana Mohammed, Director of Programmes at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), contributing to discussions, said the Commission was ready to partner the NRSA to draft a campaign message on road safety to help curb road crashes.
The meeting brought together stakeholders in transport, road infrastructure, public education and safety to discuss practical, evidence-based measures, strengthen institutional cooperation and identify support needed to achieve sustained reductions in road crash fatalities and injuries.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Benjamin Adamafio Commey
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