The Acting Upper East Regional Head of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Zachariah Laari, has called on road users, including pedestrians and riders, as well as drivers, to exercise caution on the roads, particularly ahead of and during the festive period.
To further educate road users on proper road use, the Upper East Regional Road Safety Authority has launched a campaign dubbed “Stop Speeding, Stay Alive.”
Speaking to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Mr. Laari explained that the NRSA has always educated road users on the proper use of the road but had to launch a campaign because of the special circumstances during the yuletide.
“We always do this education. Yesterday we launched our campaign with a specific focus on speeding. We realized that 90 percent of our crashes result from speeding. Basically, our main target for this festive period is overspeeding. However, we know that there are other factors like wrongful overtaking, fatigue driving, inconsiderate driving, people not practicing defensive driving, and all.”
“During this festive season, there is a lot of vehicular movement. When you have a lot of vehicles moving, you have a lot of people moving along too, so we have to be extra cautious,” he said.
Mr. Laari reminded passengers of their role in ensuring that drivers follow road traffic regulations while transporting them from one point to another. He also reminded drivers of their role in ensuring they adhere to road traffic regulations.
Meanwhile, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has revealed that the number of people killed in road accidents has increased from 35 in 2022 to 55 in 2023. Additionally, the number of vehicles involved in road accidents has risen from 184 in 2022 to 196 in 2023. Pedestrian knockdowns have increased from 17 in 2022 to 25 within the same period in 2023.
John Quarshie, Principal Transport Officer for the Upper East Regional Road Safety Authority, shared these statistics when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today.
Mr. Quarshie explained that there had been an increase in fatalities, the number of vehicles involved in road accidents, and pedestrian knockdowns, largely due to overspeeding.
“Basically, it is overspeeding. Of the 122 casualties we recorded, if you consider the vehicles that contributed, motorcycles contributed about 89 percent. Commercial vehicles also contributed 5 percent, and private vehicles contributed 6 percent. If motorbikes are contributing 89 percent, and out of that, we have 54 that are fatal crashes, that should tell you that when motorbikes crash and people lose their lives, it is overspeeding because the impact was great. We believe that speeding causes 90 percent of road crashes in the region,” he said.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
