Kumasi, Nov 08, GNA - A 5-day course in road safety management for engineers, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders in the road sector opened at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Monday.

The course, which is being organized by the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under its National Accident Management Project, aimed at enhancing the contribution of the participants to effective road safety management in Ghana.

It will also offer the participants the platform for knowledge sharing as well as fine-tuning of specific skills towards enhanced road safety management.

Officials from the Department of Feeder roads, Urban Roads, National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Town and Country Planning as well as KNUST are attending the course.

Speaking at the opening, Mr K. Amoah-Mensah, Director of BRRI, said the course would touch on three main components of capacity building. These are individual human capacity development, institutional framework and resources for optimal output of the individual and the policy aspect of enabling environment.

He said the collective application of the enhanced knowledge shared in road safety management would go a long way to reposition the country on the improved road safety management map. Professor Francis Momade, Provost of the College of Engineering at KNUST, said road safety had become a problem that required proper management.

He appealed to engineers and researchers to take into accounts the indiscipline factor on the roads when designing roads. Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, Road Safety Education Manager of the NRSC, said road accidents and fatalities pose a challenge to the nation and there was the need for urgent action to address it. Mr Kwabena Ansah Solomon, Head of Structural Design and Building Division of BRRI, said road accidents had been the bane of many economies, especially the developing ones. He called for effective approach to transform road designs and safety activities in the country.