Be disciplined to help reduce carnage on our roads - Drivers urged

The Mamprobi branch Chairman for the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr. Allotey Kpakpo has advised drivers to be disciplined and comply with road traffic regulations to reduce the number of accident related deaths on our roads.

Speaking in an interview with Rainbow Radio's Banahene Kwabena Agyekum, he said, discipline is the only core factor that can help drivers on our roads.He said, carnage on our roads by both human, road and vehicle factors.

He said adhering to road traffic regulations is one of the surest ways tio curb the increasing rate in accident related deaths. He added a key component of the strategy is the development and the implementation of programmes to upgrade the skills, knowledge and competence of drivers.

Ghana National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) statistics show that between 2002 and 2008, 13,166 people were killed in road accidents.

Of that figure, 42% were pedestrians, 23% were passengers in buses, 12% were car occupants, while the remaining 23% consisted of riders and passengers of bicycles, motorcycles, and occupants of heavy goods vehicles and pickups.

And just last year, the MTTU (Motor Traffic and Transport Unit), reported that 2,330 Ghanaians died in road accidents alone with 13,572 road accidents being recorded.

And is not just human lives that are lost to road accidents – an average of 1.6% of Ghana’s GDP is lost every year to road accidents.

The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) expressed great worry over the rise in the number of road crashes especially in 2016, having recorded remarkable drops in such cases since 2012.

The Commission, as of the end of November 2016, had recorded a total of 11,378 road crashes countrywide involving 17,746 vehicles, of which the total number of casualties stood at 12,154 comprising of 1,990 deaths and 10,154 injuries.

The targets set for this 2016 were 1,440 and 4,140 for persons killed and those seriously injured respectively, however road safety continues to pose a challenge to the country’s development agenda as the number of deaths and injuries arising from road traffic crashes had their impact on both domestic and national economies.In respect of that, Mr. Allotey Kpakpo stressed the need for drivers to be disciplined, cautious and help in reducing the carnage on our roads.