Accra May 23, GNA 96 A new road traffic law that would enable the Police to take spot fines from offending drivers would be ready in June 2006.

"It is expected that when the law becomes operational our road corridors will be considerably sanitized," Mr Magnus Opare Asamoah, Deputy Minister of Transportation, said on Tuesday Speaking at the opening of a two day workshop on the development of the National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) Phase II for 2006 - 2010 in Accra, Mr Asamoah observed that the cost of the road traffic accident calculated in terms of the country's GDP was high and unacceptable. He said Ghana spent 1.2 trillion cedis in 2004 on road accidents, adding: "We must adopt concerted measures to reduce the incidence of road traffic accidents in order to divert this quantum of our GDP to social development. Through this way, we could impact positively on the reduction of poverty in our societies."

Quoting the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the Deputy Minister said the cost of road accidents in other countries ranged between one per cent and three per cent adding; "this poses a big challenge to economies particularly those in developing countries". He said though road safety was complex it required implementing agencies to develop capacities to respond to new and innovative ways which were practical, result oriented and cost effective.

"Traditional road safety management practices must be reappraised in the light of emerging trends, new knowledge, experiences and resource availability."

Mr Asamoah commended stakeholders, who developed the NRSS Phase I, saying the implementation of the strategy brought about reduction in road accidents.

"The objective of the strategy was to achieve five per cent reduction in road accident fatality by 2005 using 1998 as the base year. At the end of the period, the road traffic accident fatality rate had declined by 50 per cent compared to planned target of a five per cent reduction." Mr Asamaoh said an overall evaluation of NRSS Phase I, revealed that pedestrians continued to constitute the largest category of fatalities as a result of road traffic accidents while occupants of buses and mini-buses also took the second largest of fatalities.

Mr Asamaoh expressed Government's commitment towards reducing morbidities and mortalities on the country's road network especially on the Accra - Kumasi; Accra - Cape Coast and Accra - Aflao trunk roads, which he said constituted 64 per cent of all accidents and 38 per cent of total fatalities.

He told the participants to consider a new strategy that would promote partnership between the private sector in the areas of road user education, first aid to accident victims and financial resource mobilization for road safety activities.

Ms Josephine Amoah, Commissioner of Insurance, called on Ghanaians to play proactive roles in ensuring that road traffic offences such as speeding and drunken driving, were made socially unacceptable. She said there was also the need to adopt and implement data-led measures and solutions to safety, which could be designed locally to address peculiar circumstances.

Ms Amoah said although the issue of road safety was eventually climbing high on the national agenda, challenges such as poor driving standards, poor maintenance of vehicles and inadequate road traffic enforcement still persisted in the country.

She indicated that the support of the judiciary was crucial to boost campaigns of the NRSC, by exercising other sentencing options apart from fines, which had so far not served as a deterrent to most drivers. =93Speaking as an Insurance professional, I would particularly like to see the high number of driver-error road traffic accidents reflected penalty points in the driving of offending of drivers. This will assist the insurance industry to reward good driving and punish offending drivers", she said.

The Commissioner urged transport unions to liaise with NSRC to institute programmes for drivers and also corporate bodies to institutionalise road safety into their routine functions. Ms Amoah expressed the hope that the new strategy would enable the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to strengthen inspections of vehicles and encourage engineering improvement to help to reduce the carnage on the roads.

Dr Cliff Aboagye, Chairman of NRSC, said the workshop would provide a platform for participants to discuss performance of the first strategy and provide the necessary grounding for the adoption of the Second Phase.

He attributed most accidents to the behaviour of the travelling public, who often lacked the courage to restrain drivers form speeding and to pedestrians, who broke traffic regulations.

The Chairman urged transport unions to intensify education of drivers on road safety, especially, with the current challenge of highway robbery and tasked the media to also support the NRSC in its educational campaigns.

"I will also advise passengers to think twice when bordering 207 Mercedes Benz to long distances, since a large number of these vehicles had of late been involved in many accidents", he said. Mr Noble John Appiah, Acting Executive Director of NRSC, urged participants to chart a new dimension for road safety in the country.