Drivers told to apply safety measures to reduce road accidents

Nana Kofi Nyarko, President of the Rotary Club of Accra Ring Road Central (RRC) has called on drivers to apply all safety measures to help reduce road accidents.

Nana Kofi said, the number of lives the country was losing through road accidents in recent times was alarming and needed conscious efforts to fight it.

"It is unacceptable for us to be losing many precious lives through road accidents. Safety on our roads is the responsibility of every individual including the pedestrians and drivers. Drivers also need to ensure that they don't drink and drive, they are not on their phones when driving and must maintain good health when they are behind the driving wheels," he said.

Mr Nyarko said this at a road safety awareness campaign organised by the RRC over the weekend at the Gye Nyame Trotro Station at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra on Saturday.

The campaign was in partnership with the Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service and National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), to sensitize the drivers on the best practices on the road.

Mr Panyin Kwaku Bio, Project Director of the club, said the exercise was going to continue every month to ensure that the drivers at the station were safety conscious.

"We did this to educate the drivers in this area on road safety tips, driving tips and also provide them with health screening from Clarion Health Services. We are happy with the turnout. Our aim is to make sure that, we can record less or no accidents from drivers in this particular station. It is going to be a monthly program where we come here on the first Saturday of every month and do an assessment," he said.

Mr Richmond Addo Gyan, of the National Road Safety Commission, said the exercise had been very helpful because the drivers had learnt things they didn't know and had also refreshed their knowledge on what they already knew.

“We hope to be having such interactions from time to time and the NRSC would be there to support whenever necessary,” he said.

More than a hundred of the drivers had free eye screening, diabetes test and high blood pressure.

The RRC also donated free first aid kit to the drivers.