Regional News of Friday, 12 August 2005

Source: GNA

Police Officials Undergo Road Safety Training

Accra, Aug. 12, GNA - Mr John Noble Appiah, Acting Executive Director of National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), on Friday said the Commission would coordinate all road safety programmes and activities to enable Ghana to achieve her strategic objectives to overcome road accidents.

He mentioned the problem of lack of road traffic enforcement, as one of the major weakness in the country's road management. Mr Appiah was speaking at a day's seminar on Road Safety held in Accra for personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana police Service.

The participants were exposed to basic traffic enforcement tactics, an overview of road safety, accident causes and prevention and ethics of motor checks.

Mr Appiah said NRSC would continue to collaborate with the Police and other road safety related agencies to reduce or prevent road accidents.

He said road safety was a "shared responsibility and nobody is immune to road accident.

"Road accident reduction and prevention involves the four specialized disciplines including education, engineering, enforcement and emergency medical assistance."

Mr Appiah said between April and June this year 347 persons were killed in road traffic accidents and 2,358 persons injured.

"As a country, we need to be concerned about the spate of road accident, and as a developing country with an increasing need for resources for development, we cannot afford the dissipation of resource through road accidents," he said, adding, 90 per cent of motor accidents were avoidable.