President Nana Akufo-Addo has charged road users to consider safety in every decision they take because every life and limb matters. He said although a “Stay Alive” campaign launched by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to empower passengers to speak up against bad driving habits and dangers on the roads was yielding positive results, more still needed to be done. The campaign involves education, advocacy, and enforcement of safety rules to prevent road crashes. “The impact of the campaign has already been reflected in the 2023 first quarter road crashes statistics,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the third International Road Federation (IRF) African
Regional Congress and Exhibition programme in Accra yesterday. Formed in 1948, the federation is active in 70 countries and provides advocacy services and continuous education on better, safer and smart road systems in member countries.
According to statistics from the NRSA, the first quarter of 2022 recorded 1,307 cases of accidents as compared to 1,118 within the same period in 2023, a reduction of 14.46 percent. In the first quarter of 2022, 254 persons lost their lives as against 223 in 2022, a difference of 12.20 per cent.
Those injured in the first d quarter of 2022 were 1,434, while in 2023, injured victims were 1,245, a percentage reduction of 13.18. President Akufo-Addo also said that roads remained the predominant means of transportation in Africa; however, he expressed concerns over the high level of road fatalities across the continent. He called for a concerted effort to avert the situation. President Nana Akufo-Addo further said that plans were far advanced for the commencement of work on the 1,028-kilometre six-lane. express corridor road from Abidjan to Lagos to augment existing road infrastructure to boost trade.
He said 576 km, constituting about 56 per cent of the road project, was located in the country. The President said the government would consider recommendations that would be made at the close of the Congress to help address some of the challenges in the transport sector in the country. He also said that the government was collaborating with all relevant stakeholders, including the UN, to execute the trans-African highway project to provide an “integrated, efficient, cost-effective and sustainable transportation system responsive to the needs of society, including poverty reduction, to make Ghana the transport hub of West Africa”.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, said the country had gained significantly from the yearly participation in the training programmes of IRF. He mentioned the organisation of a sustainable pavement design. course and a technology that involves the reuse of pavements. For instance, the minister said pavements were being re-used in the reconstruction of the Agona Junction-Tarkwa Highway project to save cost.
He said the ministry was also recommending the same under the Savelugu-Walewale Road
project in the Northern and North East regions.
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