Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, the Executive Director of National Roads Safety Commission Tuesday launched the 5th edition of the National Roads Safety Awards (NRSA) slated for November 13, 2015 in Accra.

The award categories include: Best Road Safety-Oriented Basic School, Youth Ambassador for Road Safety Awards, Best Driver Awards, Best Commercial Passenger Transport Organization Awards, Best Haulage Transport Company Award, as well as Best Road Safety Journalist Award.

The award, which was initiated in 2009, enables the Commission to celebrate institutions and individuals whose contributions continue to impact on road safety positively in the country.

Speaking at the launch, Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said the awards had been repackaged to respond to emerging trends and needs within the road safety environment.

She said as part of the ceremony, the Commission would appoint a Youth Ambassador for Road Safety, who must be between the ages of 18 and 35 with passion for road safety.

“The winner will be selected based on a project proposals submitted, which can take the form of road safety education and campaign songs, concerts, drama, school education, television programmes among others,” she added.

Mrs Obiri Yeboah said the one who would be selected would become a road safety advocate for a period of one year and would also collaborate with Origin 8, a marketing communication agency to brand some NRSC’s publicity materials.

She intimated that the category for the Best Road Safety-Oriented Basic School would be entry based and would recognize and honour a basic school, which had demonstrated initiative(s) for road safety activities or projects, aimed at ensuring that pupils are safe.

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said the awards for the best commercial passenger transport operations would be held in all regions with regional winners competing for national honours.

“The search committee will assess the organizations on their operational standards, driver standards and vehicle standards”, she added.

She noted that for the Best Driver Award category, the commercial transport operators/ unions/organizations would be required to nominate drivers for consideration by the search committee after which they would be interviewed and assessed and the winner chosen.

She noted that since the introduction of the Best Road Safety Journalist Award, journalists had become interested in road safety stories, for which the commission was grateful.

She, therefore, invited journalists to file their nominations to compete for Television, Radio and Print categories with road safety stories published or broadcasted in either local or international media between August 15, 2014 to August 15, 2015 for consideration.

She announced that the previous deadline of entry submission of August 31, 2015, had been revised and called on interested persons to check the Commission’s website, www.nrsc.gov.gh for the new date.

She called on cooperate organizations to support the Commission road safety campaign, as it affects everyone and had become a public health matter which could impact negatively on growth and poverty reduction.