Observe speed limits to reduce road crashes - Road Safety Authority

Martin Owusu Afram, Director in charge of Planning and Programmes at the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has advised motorists to adhere to the lawfully stipulated speed limits to reduce road crashes.

He said speeding reduces a driver’s reaction time to road hazards and leads to severe injuries in case of road crashes.

Mr Afram gave the advice on Tuesday during a sensitisaton and enforcement programme organised by NRSA in partnership with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) and other stakeholders on the Suhum-Koforidua stretch ahead of the Independence Day Celebration.

The activity centred around enforcement of road safety regulations such as speeding, checking of driver’s license, and helmet for motor riders, amongst others.

He said speeding was a major concern all over the world and adherence to speed limits was a sure way to curb such indiscipline on roads.

Mr Afram said the NRSA would continue to have coordinated enforcement, public campaigns, and sensitisation programmes to improve compliance on roads.

A LaserCam 4, a camera for police speed enforcement operation, was mounted about 200 meters away to capture drivers’ speed which was relayed to the team on standby for further action.

Those who were found culpable of speeding or flouting other road traffic laws were handed over to the Suhum Police to be processed for court whilst those within the speed range were encouraged to abide by the speed limits.

Mr Afram said the activity was a precursor to the Traffitech-Gh devices to be installed by the Police soon.

Traffitech-Gh (Police Invisible Eyes) is an automated device developed by the GPS which uses cameras and sensors to automatically take a picture and/or video of vehicles that flout road traffic laws and regulations such as speeding and jumping red light.

The system will automatically transfer recorded pictures and/or videos to a back office for validation and issuance of a notification by SMS to the vehicle owner for payment.

It will also send a notification indicating the location, date and time of the traffic offence, as well as the vehicle registration number, offence description and payment amount and deadline.

Other offences that will be enforced under Traffitech- Gh are expired roadworthiness certificate, wrongful overtaking, non-use of seatbelts, use of mobile phones while driving, use of expired license, driving with an uninsured vehicle and abuse of siren.

The Director said the outcome of the enforcement exercise had confirmed a survey they conducted which proved that over 70 to 80 per cent of motorists were flouting speed limits.

“The unfortunate thing is that when the roads are made better, that is when people speed; and when you have settlements by very good roads, you have incidents of pedestrian knockdowns and several accidents happening."

“Let us all go by the speed limits especially when approaching human settlements because there would definitely be human intervention and activities in highly populated areas. We are required by law to travel below speed limits,” he advised.