456 road accidents recorded in 2011- GNFS

Brigadier General John Bosco E. Guyiri, Acting Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has revealed that 456 road accidents was recorded in 2011 resulting in 278 deaths and 886 injuries.

Brigadier Guyiri added that 412 road accidents were recorded in 2010 which resulted in 145 deaths and 1051 injuries.

He said these developments are not encouraging adding that, the nation could have counted more death but for the intervention of the GNFS rapid response road traffic accidents extraction team.

Brigadier Guyiri said this at the closing ceremony of a two week training program for the GNFS by the World Rescue Organisation (WRO) in Accra.

He said the training program created a forum for learning, discussions, sharing ideas and experience leading to the better functioning and management of the service.

Brigadier Guyiri said the contribution of the WRO to the developments of the service was enormous ranging from donation of assorted extricating equipments and training of personnel both home and abroad in road traffic accidents, trauma care and water and hose rescue.

He said the relationship between the GNFS and the WRO has raised the competence level in the field of operations and safety as well as the output in rescue and evacuation.

Brigadier Guyiri noted that a yearly assessment by the WRO and the United Kingdom Rescue Organisation rated the GNFS as second to South Africa in the whole of Africa and first in West Africa in the area of extrication.

He said the service is proud to have road traffic collision equipments in all the regions and some selected districts and appealed to the WRO to help with equipments and training in rescue and evacuation in confined areas such as mines, collapsed structures and floods.

Bradagier Guyiri said management of the service places high premium on the development of her human resource base and would continue to embark on initiatives leading to the training of personnel to enable it deal with operational and safety challenges.

He said the service had successfully participated in various World Extrication Challenge in South Wales in the United Kingdom in 2008 and Frankfurt in 2009 and thanked the WRO for their continuous support in terms of capacity building and equipment of resourcing in the form of rescue gear.

Mr Rob Macdougall, Project Manager at WRO, said his outfit was pleased to be in partnership with the GNFS to improve their skills in rescue management in the country.

He congratulated participants for availing themselves for the training and urged them to share their experience with others. **