Koforidua (E/R)- The Eastern Region office of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has beefed up campaign activities ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities.
The NRSA is collaborating with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service, Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority and Department of Urban Roads in outreach programmes to enforce road safety measures.
Speaking with the Ghana News Agency in Koforidua, Ms Rosalyn Arthur, Assistant Corporate Affairs Manager of NRSA in the Eastern Region, said the campaign was also taken to schools, mosques, churches, lorry stations, drivers and discussions initiated on the radio.
She urged road users to adopt safe practices such as driving or walking cautiously during peak traffic, reducing speed, safe crossing along with crosswalks and passenger empowerment.
She said as part of the measures to have safer roads, Urban Roads have constructed rumble strips per the recommendations of road safety standards to reduce vehicle speed and pedestrian knockdowns.
The vantage points for the rumble strips included Koforidua Technical University, Bar 205, Atekyem and King Jesus basic school, among several other locations where pedestrian crossing is high.
The NRSA is the lead body responsible for road safety management in Ghana and it is empowered by act 993 to educate, regulate and ensure implementation and enforcement of best road safety standards and practices.
Ms Arthur also gave provisional statistics on road traffic crashes and casualties from January to April 2020 and from January-April 2021 in the Eastern Region
The statistics show that from January-April last year, 7,322 vehicles were involved in road crashes while 9,336 road crashes occurred during the same period in 2021.
Also, from January-April 2020, 737 people lost their lives through road crashes while at the same period this year, 1,034 persons were killed.
The statistics further show that pedestrian knockdowns were 769 from January-April 2020, affecting 972 people.
Ms Arthur advised road users to avoid unsafe practices that affected road sanity since a chunk of road crashes were recorded during festive seasons such as Christmas, saying: “Road Safety is a collective responsibility.”
Meanwhile, the Koforidua main lorry station is packed with passengers in queues, waiting for vehicles for their destinations.
The queues at the Somanya-Odumase-Kpone and Madina-Accra-Ashaiman lorry stations were the longest when the Ghana News Agency visited the stations early Wednesday.
Apart from passengers travelling, goats and sheep are also among the travelling package.
Hawkers and vendors are also making brisk business with Christmas paraphernalia.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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