Motorcycle Riders in Accra have been schooled on road safety measures as part of efforts to curb road crashes, especially during the yuletide.
The event, dubbed "Town Hall Meeting-Motorcycle Rid-ers Operation Stay Alive," was organised by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders.
The Town Hall meeting was to offer riders the opportunity to share ideas and be educated on how to comply with traffic regulations.
Interacting with the riders on Wednesday, the Acting Director General-NRSA, Mr David Osafo Adonteng, advised the riders to take responsibility for their safety and that of road users.
"Be vigilant so that you do not get killed or disabled for life, and also not cause tragedy to others, it's our dream that we all stay alive so please let's help each other," he said.
The Director of Planning and Programmes, NRSA, Mr Dan-iel H. Wuaku, said motor cycle
related crashes were exceptionally dangerous for riders due to lack of protection on the road as com-pared with users of commercial vehicles.
"They are more exposed to the impacts of insensitive drivers of other vehicles leading to crash-es, injuries and deaths, and the chances of fatality in motorcycle accidents are approximately 30 times higher than in a passenger vehicle," he said.
Mr Wuaku said the increasing usage of motorcycle was due to rapid urbanisation , decline in organised public transport, high demand for travel needs, high youth unemployment, among others.
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He expressed worry over the increased trends of motorised vehicle crashes, injuries and death.
"Motorcycles and tricycles contributed nearly 25 per cent of road fatalities in 2020, compared to four per cent in 2011, demon-strating the alarming and urgent nature of addressing this prob-lem.
"The contribution of mo-torcycle fatalities to the national RTC fatalities stock has seen over 400 per cent increment over the past 10 years," he said.
Mr Wuaku advised the public to be ambassadors of road safety by ensuring that they speak against bad attitude of some riders.
The Director, Education, Re-search and Training of the Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Superintendent Alexander Obeng, said the cur-rent high spate of avoidable road crashes leading to deaths, injuries and destruction of properties had placed huge responsibility on stakeholders in the transport industry to find solution to the menace.
He said "rider indiscipline, abuse of road markings, intoler-ance, over speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs" were some of the causes of road fatalities.
Chief Supt. Obeng said his outfit would continue to collabo-rate with stakeholders to educate road users and the public on secu-rity and safety to save lives.
He advised the riders to take keen interest in putting on the prescribed outfit to protect them-selves during a crash.
