By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, Oct. 30, GNA – The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), in collaboration with the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Assembly and the Madina Divisional Command of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), has launched a pedestrian safety campaign.
The campaign, dubbed: “Safe Crossing Saves Lives”, seeks to ensure that pedestrians use the four footbridges along the Madina-Adentan road to prevent injuries and deaths, while calling on the Police to arrest pedestrians who jaywalk.
Mr Abraham Amaliba, Director-General of the NRSA, in an address, urged the Police to arrest and prosecute offenders under Regulation 203 of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), which prohibits jaywalking and failure to use pedestrian footbridges.
He said somewhere in 2018, some citizens demonstrated over the delay and completion of the footbridges on the Madina-Adentan road, especially as some lives were lost in crossing the roads.
“On what bases would Gov’t provide the footbridges, and you will not use them? The footbridges are not decorative pieces to beautify the community. So, Police MTTD, I call on you to arrest and prosecute people for not using the footbridges,” he said.
Mr Amaliba said road crashes were increasing, and it was the responsibility of every citizen to work and reduce it, adding that, every life was important and it was not God’s will for people to die on the road.
He urged pedestrians, motorists, drivers, children, parents, MTTD and the La Nkwantanang-Madina Assembly to play their roles in ensuring compliance and realising the campaign ‘Safe Crossing Saves Lives’.
The event which brought together school children, drivers, pedestrians, chiefs and road safety advocates, saw the Director General swear in an 11-member La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Road Safety Committee, chaired by Mr Ibrahim Faila Fuseini, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Assembly.
ASP Awudu Solomon, Divisional MTTD Commander, Madina, who is part of the Committee, said the MTTD had collaborated with the Assembly in training a special task force on to usher pedestrians to use the footbridges even before the campaign was launched.
He said pedestrians had embraced the idea of using the footbridges though more work needed to be done, adding that four lives were lost in 2023 through a knockdown and two lives were lost in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
“It is an offense to neglect the footbridges and cross the road. The Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519) prohibits jaywalking and as said earlier by the Director General of NRSA, we shall come after the offenders and prosecute them,” ASP Awudu said.
Mr Fuseini, MCE, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the Assembly shall continue to work the police and other relevant agencies to ensure that the ‘Safe Crossing Saves Lives’ campaign would not be a dream but a reality.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
Patrick Ofoe Nudzi