Ghana marks first UN Decade of Action on Road Safety

The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has called on politicians to prioritise the advocacy of road safety reforms, best road practices and the improvement of the road safety situation in their constituencies.

This was contained in a statement signed by Mr. Kwame Koduah Atuahene, Head of Communications of the NRSC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday to mark UN Decade of Action for Road Safety anniversary.

The statement said the NRSC is on course with the development of the National Road Safety Strategy 111, that seeks to provide a broad strategic road safety management framework, and the National Road Safety Action Plans (NRSAP) that specify road safety interventions of the implementing agencies.

It said although measures had been instituted to reduce road safety crisis, about 2,000 deaths and 14,000 injuries representing an estimated cost of 1.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, was recorded in 2010, stressing that children of schooling age, road users from 18 and 55 years remain most vulnerable.

“In spite of the relatively challenging national road safety situation, we remain committed to the driving pillars of action for road safety in Ghana, that will help deliver on the target of reducing road traffic related deaths and injuries by 50 per cent by the end of the decade,” it added.

“We have decided to commemorate this day with a nationwide candlelight procession in memory of our friends and relatives who have sustained life threatening injuries as a result of road traffic crashes.

“We trust that it will help emphasise the road safety problem and engineer the passion required from all our stakeholders in implementing the solutions that we have agreed,” says Mr Noble John Appiah Executive Director of NRSC.

The statement commended the World Health Organisation, Transport Organisations, Road Safety Implementing Agencies and Corporate Ghana for signing up to the NRSAP adding that Ghanaians should collectively assist the Commission to save 10,000 lives and prevent 70,000 injuries by the 2020.**