Accra, July 31, GNA - Provisional statistics on road traffic accidents (RTAs) for the first quarter of this year indicate a marginal improvement as compared to the same period last year.

Recorded accident cases dropped from 3,375 in 2006 to 2,930 in the same period this year with number of vehicles involved also decreasing from 4,782 in 2006 to 4,343 this year, while the number of persons killed dropped from 406 to 372.

Mrs. May Obiri-Yeboah, Manager, Planning and Education, National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), said this at a meeting with the media on Tuesday to disseminate information on the road safety in the country and increase collaboration with the media.

She said there was, however, an increase in the number of persons injured which shot up from 2,220 to 2,226. Regional statistics also indicated that the Eastern, Volta, Northern, Western Upper East and West recorded increases in fatalities with the Northern Region being the worst with an increase from 37 to 65, representing 75.7 percent.

"Four persons are killed daily in RTAs, 42 per cent of them are pedestrians and 23 per cent children below the age of 16," she said. She said that, by 2010, vehicular population was expected to rise from about 841,314 to about 1.2 million with 12,000 deaths and 40,000 injured persons.

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah explained that traffic accidents were accidents that resulted in property damage, injury or death, involving at least one vehicle and added that any person injured or killed in such accidents was a casualty.

Deputy Director, Research and Monitoring, NRSC, Mr David Osafo Adonteng, noted that the annual cost of RTA was 1.2 trillion cedis for 2004, adding that if people did not change their attitude RTA would cost the nation even more.

He said the NRSC, in implementing its strategy had built capacity to improve skills of key stakeholders and supporting organizations and this had led to increase in awareness, which was evident in the statistics for the first quarter of the year.

"The major challenge of the NRSC is to make Ghana's road traffic systems the safest in Africa...."

Mr. Nii Nortey Dua, Executive Secretary, NRSC, appealed to the media to increase the support for road safety issues and move away from the exposure given to opening ceremonies and personalities. Road safety, he noted, was a service where one needed to change people's perception and attitudes through education and information. He added that it took some time for gains to be seen and called for the media to be passionate about road safety issues to make the country's roads safe.

Mr. Kwaku Rockson, Director Ghana Institute of Journalism, emphasized the media's crucial role in road safety advocacy and social marketing in the road safety strategy and said it was imperative that the media comprehensively studied all documents and materials on road safety issues to help them produce informed stories. He called for a cadre of media practitioners who were either generalists in orientation or specialists to make road safety one of the beats in media houses. 31 July 07