Seminar on law enforcement in road safety underway

Takoradi, Oct 24, GNA - The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) would soon begin seminars for women groups in the country to collate view on possible means of reducing high numbers of deaths particularly among men during road accidents.

Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, Manager in charge of Planning and Education of the NRSC, said statistics indicated that the ratio of deaths among women and men in road accidents was 30 to 70 and described the situation a very worrying.

She said this would be part of road safety education aimed at influencing men to adhere strictly to law and regulations in the use of the road.

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah was giving an overview of road safety situation in the country at the opening of a two-day seminar on the "Role of law enforcement and its impact on road safety" at Takoradi on Tuesday. It is the fourth in the series after those in Accra, Kumasi and Wa being organised by the NRSC.

It would help to coordinate the activities of stakeholders in the sector to promote best safety practices for all road users to minimize incidents.

"The most disturbing aspect of deaths among men is that they fall within the productive age groups of between 25 and 55 years," she said adding that until road users adopt best practices, road traffic accidents could rank the third major cause of death globally by 2010.

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said forecasts indicate that vehicle population could reach 1.7 million from the present 700,000.

The most vulnerable are pedestrians and children, she said, adding that the NRSC is developing strategy to ensure that road accidents were reduced to the barest minimum by 2010.

Mr. Anthony Evans Amoah, Western Regional Minister, called for concerted effort by stakeholders for strict enforcement of road traffic laws and regulations to reduce the carnage on the country's roads. He said the high incidents of road accidents that killed 1,400 people and injured 3,200 between January and December 2005, was unacceptable especially when 90 per cent of those accidents were preventable.