Roland Affail Monney
Mr. Roland Affail Monney, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has urged journalists to practice proactive rather than reactive journalism to promote public interest and holistic national development.
He said just as the media deeply supported the campaign against ‘galamsey’ (illegal mining) about three years ago, it was time for journalists to take the responsibility to wage a national crusade against the high rate of road accidents in the country.
Mr. Monney was addressing media professionals at a day’s road safety campaign workshop organised by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) at Abesim in the Sunyani Municipality.
On the theme: “Effective Road Safety Advocacy Campaign: The Role of the Media”, 42 media personnel drawn from the Bono, Bono East and the Ahafo Regions attended the training aimed at sensitising the participants to champion the cause of road safety to help minimize road crashes to save lives.
He observed the rate at which human lives were being lost through road crashes was very unfortunate, saying that, the carnage was an indictment on the country’s collective effort in preventing road accidents.
The GJA President entreated the media, both individual journalists and organisations to strategise in support of the NRSA and other stakeholders in campaigns for the drastic reduction, if not total prevention of carnage on the roads.
The deep involvement of the media in such a campaign would greatly help to save the lives of many people who might be bread-winners of their families and assets for the development of their communities and the country, Mr. Monney said.
Among the strategies that could be employed as part of the campaign, he suggested the media could name and shame drivers for reckless driving to serve as a deterrent to others to be highly professional and exercise the greatest degree of carefulness on the roads.
Giving a report about crashes in the Bono Region, Police Superintendent Stephen Sarfo Tinkorang, the Regional Commander of Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) said 90 per cent of road accidents resulted from human errors.
He said the region from January to June this year had recorded 41 road crashes with 50 deaths and 128 injuries as compared to 41 cases from January to May 2019 with 54 deaths and 40 injuries.
Supt. Tinkorang said this year’s cases involved 133 vehicles and 76 motorbikes and tricycles, adding that the rate at which the motor accidents were recorded on the roads “is very devastating”.
