Road accidents have killed more than 1,000 people in the country from January to April this year, the Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Mrs May Obiri Yeboah, said on Thursday.
She said last year 2,500 people died from road crashes and said the figure was the highest since 1991.
Mrs Yeboah said this when she paid a courtesy call on the Bono Regional Minister, Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, as part of her two-day inspection visit to the region.
She was accompanied by Kwame Koduah Atuahene, the Head of Regulations, Inspections and Complaints Department of the NRSA and key staff of the Authority.
Mrs Yeboah told the Minister that there were over 1,000 motorcycle and tricycle accidents since January and attributed the uncontrolled crashes to over-speeding and careless driving.
She said the Authority had forwarded a draft Legislative Instrument (LI) to the Attorney General for onward delivery to parliament for consideration, explaining the passage of the LI would push realistic implementation of the NRSA Act 2019, Act 993 which assigns a regulatory role to the Authority.
Mrs Yeboah indicated the government was much concerned about uncontrolled fatalities on the road and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had set up a Ministerial Committee to ensure that road safety regulations were implemented to the letter.
She said it required concerted and decisive approaches to tackle road crashes and appealed for support from stakeholders to prevent needless deaths on the road.
On her part, Madam Owusu-Banahane acknowledged the important role of the NRSA and called on the Authority to intensify road safety education and also ensure the public education was translated into the nation’s local languages as well.
She emphasised the enormous consequences of road accidents on the country and called for effective collaboration between road sector agencies, NRSA and other key stakeholders for intensified education and enforcement of road safety regulations.
Mr Atuahene told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) the visit was aimed at building institutional support for the new regulatory mandate of the Authority