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(Damongo) – The National Road Safety Authority in the Savannah region has on Thursday 30th September, 2021, held its first regional stakeholders meeting in the regional capital, Damongo.
The meeting was organized by the National Road Safety Authority to discuss road safety situations, solicit stakeholders inputs and assistance in their collective pursuits of safety on our roads and to also have a brief outline of work done so far by the authority in the first and second quarters of 2021.
In a presentation on the road safety situation in the region, the regional planning manager, Mr Eric Fodjour explained that according to road traffic statistics released by by the MTTD ( January-July, 2021), Ghana recorded 8,188 crashes with 1,454 fatality cases out of which 61 died in the Savannah region, and by order of regional ranking, Savannah region is placed 7th out of the 16 regions.
Mr Eric Fodjour further explained that road traffic crash statistics for 2021 shows that the situation is on the rise as compared to 2020 with Bole and Buipe noted as hot spots by recording more fatalities.
On work done so far by the authority, the regional planning manager indicated that the authority have embarked on pedestrian education, media engagements, church and mosque educations, pre-departure checks, vehicle inspections, road inspections, traffic rules enforcement and community along highways education.
Mr Fodjour said some challenging road safety issues identified during their engagement sessions include; minors riding unregistered tricycles, riding without wearing crash helmet, defacing of road signs with posters, defaced zebra crossing markings, sleeping livestock on the highways, Non availability of towing trucks, congested pedestrian walkways, billboards at intersections obstructing motorists and therefore calling on the regional minister to issue a directive to the seven (7) municipal and district assemblies making it mandatory for government workers to wear crash helmets while riding bikes to their offices.
He also appealed to stakeholders to support the DVLA, National Road Safety Authority and the police MTTD to enforce the wearing of helmets to help address the above mentioned infractions.
In a remark, the regional manager for the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) for the Northern regions, Mr Mutawakil Abdulai called on politicians, chiefs, departmental heads, the media and all stakeholders to support the DVLA and the National Road Safety Authority on the education of road safety and the enforcement of the laws in ensuring the wearing of crash helmets whilst riding and the use of unregistered tricycles and motorbikes.
Mr Mutawakil Abdulai further explained that from statistics, all is not well for an infant region like the Savannah region because the region lost 61 lives from January-August this year and for him, that is too huge lost.
He assured that, the two departments will work well if politicians and stakeholders do not interfere in their work. He noted that they all working in the interest of government and must be allowed to their work diligently without fear or favor.
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