ROAD SAFETY MUST BE ON AGENDA OF PARTIES (PAGE 42)

By Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah

The Brong Ahafo office of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has organised a forum in Kumasi for representatives of the various political parties on road safety codes, as the parties gear themselves up for their political campaigns in the run-up to the December elections.
The NRSC observed that as the date for the elections drew near and the political parties were using vehicles in touring the country to vigorously campaign, it was the responsibility of the commission to sensitise them to the inherent dangers and to appeal to them to be extra careful while embarking on those trips.
The parties included, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC), Convention Peoples Party (CPP), National Reform Party (NRP) and the Ghana National Party (GNP).
Making a presentation on “Road Safety Situation in Ghana”, the Regional Coordinator of the NRSC, Mr Daniel H. Wuaku, noted that “as Ghanaians, we seem to have reached a stage where road accidents and fatalities that result fail to appeal to us , an attitude which contrasts strongly with our reactions to other forms of disasters, such as the one which recently occurred in the north.
However, he pointed out that road traffic accidents had become major public health issues, developmental, human resource and welfare issues as well as an issue for the political parties too because “every single life lost through road accidents was one vote lost to a party”.
The problem, he said, therefore, required every conceivable measure, effort and will to bring it under control and that the way forward was to meet political parties, presidential aspirants and their campaign teams.
He disclosed that the vision for road safety, which is “to make Ghana’s transportation system the safest in Africa” while the national road safety strategic objective is “to reduce road accident fatalities on a year-on-year basis and achieve a total of less than 1000 by the year 2015”.
Quoting a report by the Building and Road Reserach Institute (BRRI) for 2006 on the estimation of cost of road traffic accident in Ghana, Mr Wuaku further disclosed that, road traffic crashes cost the nation 1.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which translated to $165 million in 2006.
The Regional Co-ordinator indicated that about 1,600 people died annually in Ghana through road traffic crashes and that at least, four persons were reported killed in road traffic accidents daily while 42 per cent of the fatalities involved were pedestrians.
He again revealed that 23 per cent of pedestrian fatalities involved children below age 16 and 60 per cent of accidents were caused by speeding. Bus and mini-buses account for 35 per cent of fatal accidents and car occupants, 32 per cent.