Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, has charged road users to abide by the safety rules to reduce road crashes in the country.
“Drivers must desist from drink-driving, speeding and observe road signs while pedestrians use walkways provided and cross the road at the pedestrian crossing to help promote safety as we commute,” she advised.
Mrs Sackey gave the advice during a visit to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital on Monday, when the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BOGRS) joined the rest of the world in commemorating Road Crash Victims’ Remembrance Day.
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They contributed around 8,000 Ghana cedis worth of things to the hospital, including wheelchairs, clutches, detergents, hand-gloves, cartons of milo, packs of bottled water, powdered soaps, packets of toilet rolls, hand sanitizers, and soft drinks.
Every year on the third Sunday in November, the Day is marked as a high-profile global event to memorialize the millions of people who have been killed or gravely injured on the world’s roadways.
Mrs Sackey said: “Our hearts go out to all the families, friends, and colleagues who have lost close relatives and friends in road traffic crashes. May the good Lord comfort your hearts as you go through these painful times.”
She said the AMA with the support of BIGRS has collaborated with key road safety stakeholder institutions to under several projects and interventions with the city of Accra and among them was the launch of the AMA Road Safety Strategy, a document that sets out plans to effectively deal with the road safety situation in the city.
The others were the launch and continuous implementation of the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan that seeks to safeguard the safety of pedestrians as they commute within the city space.
The Chief Executive expressed gratitude to all who supported in the commemoration of the Day, saying, “It is my prayer that this sacrifice is regarded with reduced crashes and fatalities in the not-too-distant future.”
Madam May Obiri-Yeboah, the Executive Director of NRSA, in a speech read on her behalf, said reported cases of road crashes in Accra had gone high and the number of persons injured and killed had increased.
She said the accidents should be a wake call for all the road players in the industry to put work and plans into action and do more to prevent the menace.
Madam Obiri-Yeboah said the NRSA has recognized the need to do more and as such step up its programmes and activities as it launched the ‘Stay Alive Campaign’ in collaboration with the Bloomberg, the COVID-19 Trust Fund, Ghana Insurance Association, Prudent Foundation, Multimedia – Adom FM, the New Times Corporation, Coca Cola, among others.
The campaign entails education, advocacy, training for drivers, coordinators and law enforcement agencies – Drivers Vehicle and Licensing Authority and the Motor Traffic and Transport Department. “As we remember the victims of road crashes, let see this Day as a call to action by all stakeholders in the road safety space. Road safety is the responsibility of all,” she stated.
Dr Emmanuel Srofenyo, the Medical Director of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, in a welcoming address, said one of the services that the facility provided is trauma and orthopaedic emergencies, which were rapidly becoming major cases that were attended to.
Providing statistics, he said, just within the half-year between January and June, this year the hospital alone had received 664 crash victims and that positioning this within the fact that the Greater Accra Regional is not the only hospital in Accra.
“We have hospitals like the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, 37 Military Hospital, the UGMC, Police Hospital – we have all these big hospitals and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital alone had received 664, which works averagely to 100 such cases that are brought to our doorsteps every month and that also works to about three every day.
“So this is just to give us an idea of the magnitude of the problem that we have on our hands, which we all have to really work as a team–the media, our Mayor and all of us in one way or the other that are connected to this situation to bring it under control,” Dr Srofenyo said.
He said the hospital is well-positioned to play a leading role in that fight. Mrs Sackey and her entourage were led by Dr Srofenyo and Dr Reuben Ngissah, Orthopedic Consultant of the Hospital to visit some of the accident victims at the hospital.
Dr Srofenyo, on behalf of the hospital, expressed gratitude to the organisers for choosing the hospital for the commemoration of the Day and the media for their participation.
