A leading public policy think tank, CUTS International, Accra in partnership with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) and Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) has trained journalists on road safety reporting.

The workshop, which took place in Accra sought to, among others, further build the capacity of journalists on several road safety modules.

These include interpreting road safety statistics for impactful reporting; best practices in road safety reporting, and road safety advocacy reporting, thereby rallying their support for policy reforms and public education campaigns during this year’s election and beyond.

Speaking at the workshop, the Director for the West African Regional Centre for CUTS, Appiah Kusi Adomako Esq. explained that road safety remains a critical public health concern in the country, particularly during election periods when increased political activities and movement often result in a spike in road traffic incidents.

“Journalists require specialized skills to interpret road safety statistics, understand the underlying risk factors including; drink-driving, speeding, helmet and seat belt, child restraint system to support policy advocacy in this regard and communicate them effectively to the public and policymakers” he said. He further opined that accurate and informed reporting by journalists can play a pivotal role in shaping public discourse, reducing crashes and influencing policy decisions that enhance road safety.

In his remarks, the Director-General of National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ing. David Adonteng, said the road safety effort in Ghana hinges on the advocacy effort and support from the media. He said media could promote road safety by providing platforms for road safety awareness and intervention programmes.

Mr Adonteng said for the year 2023, road traffic accidents had reduced as compared to the previous year. However, he said political cycles influenced the frequency and severity of road traffic crashes and injury rates in the country. He said the media could play a major role in creating awareness of road safety during election periods, emphasizing that they could educate the public on the contributing factors of road traffic accidents during elections.

“Now we are also particularly interested this year because in every election year, we have a history; our statistics point to the fact that when elections are coming and politicians organized their rallies and campaigns to solicit for votes, their activities impact negatively on our road traffic accident figures,” he said.

He said in the past years that elections were held, “we have monitored this seriously and closely and found out that this running round to the various locations across the country populates our streets and our roads with people with vehicles and with all kinds of characters that are contrary to the requirements of our law.”

Mr Adonteng said the media must demand traffic and road safety responsibility from political actors and amplify public sentiments on road safety concerns. He said the media must identify and highlight legislative enforcement gaps and draw the attention of the political parties to them.

Mr. Martin Afram, Director Planning and Programme, NRSA, said the media played a major role in reducing road traffic accidents during elections, stressing that the media could collaborate with his outfit and other agencies to promote road safety.

On his path, the Communication and Advocacy lead for CUTS International, Mr Shadrack Nii Yarboi Yartey said available statistics indicated that drunk driving and over-speeding were the leading causes of road accidents in the country.

He, therefore, charged the road safety platform to collaborate with the relevant authorities to intensify advocacy on drunk driving and over-speeding.

The Program Coordinator for Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, Mr Osei Kufour charged journalist to be road safety advocates and embark various advocacy campaigns to increase public awareness on safety to reduce crashes on the road during the election period and beyond.