Sixty-six lives were lost through road accidents in the Central Region in the first quarter of 2017, almost double the figure recorded within the same period last year.
The Region recorded a total of 296 cases of road accidents involving 400 vehicles with 456 injuries as against 182 cases recorded last year.
Mr Thomas Bismark Boakye, Acting Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) disclosed this at a road safety stakeholders meeting and the Regional Road Safety Committee in Cape Coast.
The Committee has representatives from the Police MMTD, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO, Transport companies, Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS, Information Service, Red Cross Society and the media.
Mr Boakye said the Region also recorded 103 pedestrian knock downs as against 39 recorded in the first quarter of 2016, one of the highest in the country.
He said most of the road accidents were caused as a result of drivers disregarding road traffic regulations, drink-driving, fatigue, over-loading, failure to use seat belts, wrongful over-taking and speeding.
He called on drivers to desist from such negative practices and obey road safety regulations and also ensure that their vehicles were in good conditions before putting them on the road.
He also advised passengers to demand driver discipline to ensure that they were transported safely to their destinations.
Mr Boakye said the NRSC is rolling out a number of pragmatic programmes as part of efforts to mitigate the spate of accidents in the Region especially on the Accra-Cape Coast Highway.
They include the use of road safety advocates, NGOs and Civil Society Organisations in road safety education, training seminars and workshops for drivers, transport operators as well as passengers.
Mr Boakye said NRSC would fully implement spot fines and called for a strong collaboration in the area of enforcement, engineering emergency services and education.
The Commission, he said would continue to partner road safety stakeholders to undertake road safety education with the focus on passenger and pedestrian safety since they occupied a large share of the accident death toll in the region.
The Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) David Nenyi Ampiah-Bennin stressed the readiness of the Police to collaborate with all stakeholders to help reverse the trend.
Source: GNA
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