Central Regional minister rallies support for road safety

Justina Marigold Assan, Central Regional Minister, has expressed her resolve to collaborate with all relevant stakeholders to ensure road traffic safety compliance in the Region.

She said it was the way to significantly ease vehicular traffic offences to reduce its attending avoidable accidents, deaths, injuries and damages.

Mrs Assan made the pledge when the executives of the Central Region branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) paid a courtesy call on her at the Regional Coordinating Council on Tuesday.

The visit was to welcome her into the Region and to reaffirm their unwavering determination to work in tandem with her office to effectively ensure road safety regulations were enhanced for the benefit of all.

Mrs Assan expressed worry over the spate of road accidents in the Region and stressed the urgent need for all stakeholders in the transport sector to rally efforts to find a workable solution that would help reduce road accidents.

She was particularly troubled about the heavy vehicular traffic congestion on the Malam-Cape Coast highway, which many well-meaning people had complained about.

Special mentions were the infamous Kasoa, Winneba junction and Mankessim traffic jams that had become a frightening ordeal to commuters.

To remedy the vehicular traffic menace in such areas, the Central Regional Minister pledged to set up a committee consisting of all key stakeholders to urgently find a lasting solution to ease the traffic congestions on the stretch among others.

While praising the leadership of the GPRTU and others for their meritorious services over the years, Mrs Assan appealed to them not to sit on the fringes, but effectively join the national road safety campaigns to make it a success.

She reassured the transport unions of her support saying "I will operate an open door administration to welcome all people and organisations that are ready to front for the development of the Region to untie the poverty knot with massive development to bring endless joy to all."

Alhaji Rahiya Alieu, the Regional Chairman of GPRTU who led the delegation, saluted Mrs Assan for her portfolio and charged her not to relent in her unflinching bid to facilitate development across the Region.

He was equally distressed about countless road crashes that had maimed and killed people and reassured of his outfit's commitment to work assiduously with all to drastically reduce the rampant rate of road accidents in the Region.