Ghana has launched a Child Road Safety campaign for the schools, to reduce the rate of road traffic fatalities.

The launch, which was held at St Joseph Anglican Primary School premises at Bubiashie in Accra, was on the theme: “Seen and be Re-seen.”

It is a new initiative by five partners – the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, Puma Energy Foundation, Puma Energy Ghana and Amend.

Mr Jacob A.M. Kor, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the guest of honour, said child road safety has been one of the most critical issues in road management in Ghana.

He said statistics from the schools, have shown that children of school-going age, especially at the primary level are consistently knocked by vehicles with some leading into long life disability and deaths.

Mr Kor said a lot of attention has been drawn to the need to incorporate road safety into the school curriculum.

“I want to assure all partners that the GES is ready to partner…stakeholders to ensure that road safety is part of our curriculum and if possible for students to take it seriously to become examinable.

“So, all depends on your cooperation. In our curriculum development, it has a five-life-year cycle and the five-year is almost ending and when we begin to review the curriculum…stakeholders will be invited to support us in diverse ways so that we incorporate the road safety in the curriculum,” he said.

Mr Kor advised pedestrians, especially school children to be extra cautious and patience as they approach the road.

Mr David Adonteng, Head of Planning and Monitoring, NRSC said children are the most vulnerable road users and therefore urged the citizenry strive to stop their killing.

Mr Adonteng said globally road crash death of people is estimated at 1.4 million annually and this being predicted to be the third leading cause of deaths if not checked.

He said Ghana records an average of 1,800 deaths through road crashes annually with about 14,000 others getting injured.

“In 2004 in particular, 1,836 persons were killed in crashes. 11,027 were injured, 5,000 of them were very serious, 240 of the deaths were children of…0-15 years and that constituted 13 per cent of the deaths.

“Currently we have 38 per cent of our deaths on the roads in absolute figures of 684 who are pedestrians; and out of the pedestrians who died 23 per cent in absolute figures 162 were children of the same age group of 1-15 years.”

He noted that children got killed mostly when as pedestrians and when they were crossing the road to, and from school.

“We deem this as unacceptable,” he said.

Mr Adonteng said this year, provisional statistics provided by the police indicate that in the first quarter – January to March, the country has recorded 2,900 thus almost 3,000 of crashes, 508 deaths, and 2,687 were injured.

“I will not be surprised that if we should confirmed these figures by the end of this year we may get in the first quarter alone not less than 80 number of children among the dead.

“The issue of child safety on the road goes beyond statistics, but rather our worry is the direct pressure of medical and rehabilitation cost on families and government,” he said.

He said the NRSC has embarked on media, public and school outreach educational programmes on road safety.

The Commission has mounted lollipop stands at some road points, distributed road safety textbooks to primary and junior high schools across the country to catch them young in road safety as plans are being put in place to incorporate it in a subject in the school curriculum.

Mr Adonteng called on infrastructural developers such as the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, teachers and the parent-teacher associations not to relent in their efforts to place on their agenda the discussion on road safety to protect children.

Mr Issah Ali, Executive Director of VALD said the use of motorbikes for commercial transport is an emerging challenge to pedestrians and called on the authorities to address the situation.

Ms Zohra McDolley-Aimone of PUMA said: “This campaign now includes 10 African counties that will benefit a total of 115,000 school children across Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Tanzania.”

She said 15,700 Ghanaian students would benefit from the road safety education and the activities would bring about concrete results in road safety improvement.

“The child road safety campaign is about planting a seed into Ghana’s future towards improving road behaviour to preserve the lives of the country’s youth,” she said.

Ms McDolley-Aimone said: “We partner with locally based development NGOs to achieve lasting change in the areas of education and training, health and safety, and the environment.”

The partners are collaborating with 57 schools in Accra, which are exposed to road traffic injury problems among their student population.

Madam Rose Akufu, the Head Teacher of the St Joseph Anglican School appealed to the NRSC and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to provide zebra- crossings at the two entrances of the school, to save the children from being hit by vehicles.

She said it would also help promote teaching and learning.

The St Joseph Anglican School was presented with lollipop crossing stand while some of the school pupils were given reflector-enhanced schoolbags.