Regional News of Friday, 23 March 2012

Source: GNA

Students embark on road safety campaign on N1 Highway

Functional Keys Limited (FKL), an event planner, in partnership with Odorgonno Senior High School on Friday organised a road safety float to promote best road safety practices.

The event formed part of road safety awareness activities initiated by the company in collaboration with the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and Marian Naa Abbey, Miss Road Safety 2011, the elected road safety ambassador.

The elated students were seen distributing leaflets, brochures and tracts on road safety to pedestrians, drivers and other motorist, amidst cheers and dancing.

Some of the 100 students, who participated in the float, got off the vehicle they were traveling on to converse with pedestrians on road safety tips.

Some patrons were spotted busily reading the leaflets while others stuck a few of the road safety signs on their cars.

Mr Emmanuel Kweku Hayford, Chief Executive Officer of FKL told Ghana News Agency that, the float was to raise awareness on the need to roll out immediate pragmatic solutions to deal with the upsurge in reported incidents of road crashes on the N1 Highway.

He said the float begun at the Mallam junction, through the Lapaz Highway and ended at the Achimota-Ofankor end of the Highway, where the event was climaxed with a durbar at the Achimota Station.

Mr Hayford said his organisation had engaged the youth because they were the segment of the population that had been mostly neglected on road safety issues.

Miss Abbey, who is also a Teaching Assistant at the University of Ghana Legon, said, she had spoken to some officials at the NRSC and given the assurance that the engineers in charge of the N1 Highway would soon construct six foot bridges in addition to the existing ones.

She appealed to residents living close to the N1 Highway to exercise restraint and be road safety-conscious, as well as use the approved footbridges to prevent knock-downs and road accidents.**