Ing. May Obiri-Yeboah (R) with Rev. Benedict Cyril Crabbe
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC, Ing. May Obiri-Yeboah, has called on Ghanaians to support the Commission with logistics to effectively carry out the core mandate of educating and sensitising road users to matters of road safety.
According to the CEO, the Commission lacks basic logistics such as vehicles and enough funds to support other road safety ambassadors who, out of their own vocation, are embarking on campaigns throughout the country to reduce road accidents.
She revealed that currently, Ghana has only 80 road safety campaign workers advocating over 28 million Ghanaians, a situation she described as worrisome.
“Because we lack the personnel and some logistics, we cannot be everywhere in Ghana to advocate road safety issues,” she stated.
Ing. Obiri-Yeboah made these statements in Accra during the commemoration of this year’s United Nations Day of Remembrance for Minor and Serious Injuries at the Chazak Chapel International at Odorkor.
The United National has set November 18 every year as World Remembrance Day for people who have minor and serious injuries through road crashes.
The NRSC boss said the situation was not pleasant at all in terms of resources because people who support the Commission with road safety campaigns don’t get any help from the Commission because “we ourselves need support.”
“When you were talking about needing a vehicle for your campaigns, I was like wow, but the fact is that those who live by the fire can determine how hot the fire is and it is our prayer that in the coming year, God will be gracious with us and open the heavens so that we can support our advocates,” she said.
She used the occasion to advise drivers and Ghanaians to avoid using mobile phones while driving or accessing the road and cautioned Okada drivers to obey the road safety rules and regulations.
The NRSC boss called on Ghanaians to be road-safety-conscious and be ambassadors of road safety issues in the country.
The head pastor and founder of Accident Victims Support (AVS), Rev. Benedict Cyril Crabbe, said roads and highways in the country had become death traps.
Rev Crabbe said the issue of road accident had become a national crisis and “it is our duty as a nation to make road safety a shared responsibility.
“Accident victims are suffering and therefore, as a society, we must make a concerted effort to support them or better still look at the way our insurance system works in the country,” he stated,
He used the occasion to make donations to some accident victims in the country, especially one of the Ashaiman accident victims, Mrs Comfort Boateng, who was given GH?2, 000.00.
The good work of the founder of AVS was recognised on Friday, November 23, when the NRSC honoured him with an honorary certificate at the just-ended NRSC awards.
He used the occasion to thank NRSC, National Insurance Commission and Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation for honouring him.
