Kumasi, Aug 27, GNA - Ashanti Region recorded 890 road accidents that claimed 134 lives and left 606 others injured during the first half of the year, Mr Kwaku Oware-Boateng, the Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), has said. The region's overall figure for 2008 was 1,762 with 268 deaths and 1,480 injured.

Mr Oware-Boateng said this when he addressed a meeting of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs in Kumasi on Wednesday. Drunk driving, speeding, disregard for road traffic regulations, bad roads and lack of regular maintenance of vehicles, he said, are to blame for these accidents.

He said the rate at which lives were being lost and maimed on roads was unacceptable and that it becomes more worrying considering efforts the commission and other stakeholders had been making over the years to change the situation for the better The carnage, he said, was threatening the nation's development and must not be allowed to continue.

Mr Oware-Boateng said it was in the light of this that NRSC, in collaboration with the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) had intensified road safety education for drivers, pedestrians and other road users. He appealed to the chiefs to join in the campaign to bring down the high incidence of road accidents.

The Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies should also put road safety in their development agenda. Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, Omanhene of Asante-Mampong, appealed to the DVLA to ensure that only qualified people were issued with driving licenses to help bring sanity on the roads The Ghana Highways Authority should also see to it that the road network was improved with adequate road signs provided. 27 Aug 09