Nominations open for Ghana Driver and Safety Awards 2018

Could we get drivers behaving well on the roads by rewarding good driving behaviour? Could we prevent accidents on our roads by shining the spotlight on defensive drivers? Could we save lives and property on our roads through rewards to road safety actors?

Practitioners of management and psychology are all too familiar with the principle that what gets rewarded gets repeated. In fact, Kevin Richardson proved the validity of this principle empirically in engendering good driving conduct. Richardson, an American, won Volkswagen’s fun theory contest in Sweden with his “Speed Camera Lottery” concept in the year 2010.

By the lottery, drivers who kept to speed limits would get rewarded with fines charged on drivers who were captured by the camera overspeeding.

Guess what? It worked!

The average speed of cars passing the lottery camera dropped from 32km/h before the experiment to 25km/h after.

Themed “Rewarding driving excellence, promoting road safety”, the Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards is set to use rewards and recognition to promote safety on the roads. It is no surprise that the President of the country, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has taken a keen interest in this project and has confirmed to be the Special Guest of Honour for the maiden Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards.

Earlier this year, the president approved an urgent action plan to tackle road crashes with a focus on sensitisation, law enforcement and improvement of road signages. The awards come as a further boost to road safety promotion in the country.

The Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards is a partnership project between the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and a driver welfare and road safety organisation called Shekani Ghana.

The project is supported by the Ministry of Transport, the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council, and the Motor Transport & Traffic Division (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.

The grand prize for the GHANA DRIVER & ROAD SAFETY AWARDS 2018 is a brand new saloon car proudly sponsored by Ghacem, The Nation’s Builder.

Ghana’s proud fuel and lubricant brand, GOIL, is also supporting the programme as a demonstration of the brand’s commitment to road safety.

Other organisations supporting the awards include Voltic Ghana, SIC Insurance, and Travel Desk. Media Partners include the Business & Financial Times, Daily Graphic, Adom FM, and Asempa FM.

Commercial Drivers' Unions across the country have been engaged to submit entries of their best drivers based on a clearly defined criteria. Drivers in the corporate sector are to be nominated by their Transport Managers.

Nominated drivers will be taken through a three-stage evaluation and selection process to arrive at the eventual grand prize winner as well as other category winners. A Technical Committee composed of representatives of National Road Safety Commission, DVLA, MTTD, Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council, and Shenkani Ghana.

The grand finale of the event is scheduled for the 23rd of November, 2018 at the forecourt of the State House. The guest list includes Ministers of State and Heads of MDAs, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Heads of Sponsoring organisations, School Children, as well as hundreds of drivers.

Nominations forms can be obtained from offices of the National Road Safety Commission across the country as well as the National Offices of all Driver Unions. All enquiries about the awards can be directed to 0246 909 838.