Koforidua, Aug 4, GNA - The National Road Safety Awards was launched in Koforidua on Wednesday with the expectation that it would provide a boost to the broad national framework and strategy to achieve a decline in crash figures.

Mr Mike Allen Hammah, the Minister of Transport, in a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, said road accidents might be preventable since about 80 percent of accidents were due to human error.

Mr Hammah appealed to all to help deliver on the national vision of making the country's road transportation system one of the safest in Africa.

"Road safety is an issue that cuts across disciplines and requires much commitment and passion to achieve good results".

Mr Hammah said records showed that pedestrians and passengers accounted for about 43 percent and 23 percent respectively of crash victims.

"Pedestrians including children are often knocked down by moving vehicles while innocent passengers mostly on public vehicles cruelly lose their lives in gruesome accidents".

He said the socio-economic cost of road accidents to families and the nation was huge adding that it was a situation the government was very much concerned about and was doing everything possible to address the situation.

Mr Hammah said the maiden National Road Safety Awards would, for now, focus on transport unions and organizations and there would be regional and national awards.

He said the award scheme had been instituted with the expectation that it would provide the opportunity for the unions and organizations to improve their road safety profile and to stimulate a healthy competition amongst them for the public good.

"To this end, the target for the awards is not drivers or terminals but organizations and unions such as GPRTU, PROTOA, Cooperative, OA Transport, Intercity STC, M Plaza and VIP, among others who provide inter-city transport services".

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the Eastern Regional Minister, said the time had come for drivers' unions to set up training schools to organize periodic refresher courses to update the knowledge of drivers.

He spoke about the growing phenomenon of reckless driving among road users and appealed to law enforcement agencies to do all they could within their power to bring those miscreants to face the full rigours of the law without fear or favour.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ransford Ninson, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, said from January to June, the region recorded 616 accidents as against 748 last year.

He said 114 people were killed in those accidents this year as against 143 people who lost their lives last year.