Accra, June 3, GNA - The status of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) is to be changed to an authority to empower the agency to demand compliance with road safety laws and regulations. Consequently, the Ministry of Transport, would soon put an amendment bill before Parliament for consideration, Mr Mike Hammah, the sector minister, said in Parliament on Wednesday in response to a question on measures to curb the current spate of road accidents in the country.

He said statistics indicated that for the first quarter of this year, more than 500 lives were lost through road accidents with some 2,000 injuries recorded.

The Minister said the NRSC would also facilitate the "installation of speed limiters in all commercial vehicles to enable drivers adhere to required speed limits especially on the high ways." "Apart from that, the NRSC will also facilitate the installation and operation of speed cameras to control incidents of speeding and abuse of some traffic regulations."

Mr Hammah said the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Police Service and the NRSC had put in place a strategy to vigorously enforce traffic regulations with a focus on the crash prone highways. He said various measures including improving the work of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority would be enhanced, among other activities in collaboration with other sectors, to cut down on road accidents.