Public Agenda (Accra)
Ayuure Kapini Atafori
31 October 2008
Ghana's National Road safety Commission (GNRC) is working to reduce the accident fatality rate to single digit by 2015, comparable to highly motorised countries like Sweden and Denmark.
The NRSC ispromoting best road user practices and advocating the incorporation of road safety audit in road projects to achieve this strategic objective.
The NRSC is also providing support for law enforcement of road traffic offenders and intensify the training and education of identifiable road users and related stakeholders through outreach events.
This was disclosed by Magnus Opare Asamoah, deputy Minister of Road Transportation, at the launch ofthis year's road safety week in Accra on Monday. The activities of the week-long event include a forum with religious leaders and a road safety walk with President John Kufour.
These activities would provide a launching pad for reducing the road accidents rate through advocacy forbest road user practices.
Anti-road accident action plans already implemented by the NRSC has contributed to the stabilisation of accident rate in Ghana from 31 deaths per 10,000 vehicles in 2001 to 22 deaths per 10,000 vehicles in 2007.
Ghana's fatality record ranks favourably in Africa against Botswana, ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, senegal, Uganda and Sierra Leone that record fatality rates of 26, 111, 35, 42, 52, 105 and 29 deaths per 10,000 vehicles respectively.
The World Bank has, therefore, recognised Ghana's management of road safety issues as a model for Africa. As a result, several road safety managers from GambiA, Benin, Lesotho, Nigeria and Zambia have visited Ghana to learn from its achievements.
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