'Road users urged to be safety-conscious'

The Eastern Region recorded 116 deaths from motor accidents, with 1,001 injured, between January and June 2015.

The figure represents a 17 percent drop from 144 deaths recorded in 2014. The number of injured persons for 2014 was 1,247.

The Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr Kwasi Yirenkyi who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Koforidua urged motorists, passengers and pedestrians to make their safety a priority.

“We targeted that if at all we should record accident deaths, it should not exceed 128 for the half year but from January to the end of June this year, the region recorded a total of 116 deaths, which is an improvement but not impressive,” Mr Yirenkyi explained.

He expressed worry about the careless attitude exhibited towards road safety by most road users in spite of the extensive education the NRSC had continued to offer.

“Most Ghanaians seem to take things for granted; motorists know what to do and know the consequences of what they do yet they decide to do the vice,” he said.

He said his outfit will continue to intensify road safety education to ensure that no death was recorded in the next half of the year, adding that they were devising appropriate strategies to achieve the expected target by end of 2015.

According to the motor accident statics as provided by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service in the Region, a total of 740 vehicles were involved in road crashes in the first half of the year as against 1,063 recorded in the same period in 2014, indicating a 30 percent reduction in cases reported.

A total of 130 pedestrians were knocked down in the first half of 2015 as compared to 173 during the same period in 2014, showing a 24 percent reduction.