Accra, Aug. 25, GNA - The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) would on November 19, 2011 organise a National Road Safety Awards to recognise the contributions of media institutions to improve road safety.

The Commission is therefore inviting entries of road safety related news stories, feature articles, editorials and documentaries published or aired between November 2010 and August 2011 to its National Planning Committee by September 30, 2011.

A release issued by the National Planning Committee of the National Road Safety Awards 2011 on Thursday and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said this was an additional category of awards for this year’s event.

It said: “These media awards have been created to honour Ghanaian media institutions that have published and presented road safety content relevant to the National Road Safety Strategy and consequently contributing to improving the overall national road safety situation.”

The release said the entry format should be printed copies of publications for the print medium and recordings of programmes for the electronic medium, adding that the entries must indicate date of publication and time of publication.

It said the prize package for award winners included training programmes on Road Safety and Traffic Management to be co-organised by the Department of Civil Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the India Institute of Technology, Madras.

The release said the award categories include Best Media Institution for Road Safety reporting for Print, Best Media Institution for Road Safety reporting for Radio and the Best Media Institution for Road Safety reporting for Television.

Entries must be submitted to: The Chairman, National Planning Committee, National Road Safety Awards, P.O. Box 01683 Osu-Accra or emailed to info@nrsc.gov.gh, it added.

The release said: “Numerous crashes on our roads which are largely avoidable and our poor road safety record remain a threat to Ghana’s growth and poverty reduction efforts.

“The support of the media in creating public awareness and demand for road safety as well as holding the NRSC’s stakeholders accountable to their commitment is crucial to the attainment of the national target of reducing road crash casualty levels by 50 per cent by the year 2020 as envisioned by the National Road Safety III (2011-2012).”