Nestle, Activa Int. Join Road Safety Campaign

Some participants in a chat after the first session of the workshop.

As part of efforts to support Ghana National Road Safety Commission to reduce frequent road crashes in the country, a two-day workshop to ensure safe, secure, reliable and efficient transport system has been held inAccra.

The workshop was organized by NestleGhanain collaboration withZurichand Activa International Company.

The objective of the workshop was to create an open, honest, ‘sales free’ forum where participants could share good practices, processes and outcomes and also lay foundations for developing long term sustainable programmes for work-related road safety policy and practice.

It provided the forum for exchanging ideas on what the effective work related road risk management process looked like and the steps for implementation within African nations.

Addressing the opening session of the workshop, the Minister for Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda lamented that statistics indicated that road traffic crashes were responsible for at least six deaths a day and 1,800 a year resulting in several thousands of injuries and incapacitation.

According to the minister, Ghana road transport constituted about 90% of public travel, making road safety a major concern.

“The estimated cost of crashes to the economy is 1.6% of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) valued at about $419 million as at 2009 whilst it is established that, 60 percent of the victims of road traffic crashes are aged between 15 and 55 years,” he said.

He noted that reports further indicated that within a period of 10 years (January 2000 to December 2010) the country recorded a total of 125,857 Road Traffic Crashes, 20,503 deaths, and 63,384 serious injuries.

“Between January and September 2011, 1,713 fatalities were recorded, representing nearly 4.51% increases over the same period whilst injuries increased by 4.68% over the same period,” Said Alhaji Dauda.

The minister lamented that despite the seemingly bad situation, the intensive road safety programmes being undertaken by the National Road Safety Commission and the stakeholders has led to decrease in persons killed in some areas such as Tema by 2%, Central Region by 1% and 25% in the Ashanti Region.

Also, significant reductions in fatalities were recorded in the following road user classes: car occupants, 7%; pick-up occupants, 16%; bicyclists, 12% and other road users, 27%.

There were however increases in pedestrian, heavy vehicles, bus/mini bus occupants and motorcyclist fatalities by 5%, 6%, 31%, and 49% respectively.

Mr Dauda stressed that the National Road Safety Strategies and Action Plans have significantly improved on the road safety situation in the county.

He noted that the forum would serve as an opportunity for transport organizations with fleet risk exposures in this area to discuss and implement effective fleet safety programmes for the future.

“We should all endeavour to help deliver on the vision to make Ghana’s road transportation system the safest in Africa,” he said, adding that road safety issue is a shared and collective responsibility and we all are at risk.

The Managing Director of Nestle Ghana, Moataz El Hout noted that Nestle considered safe driving a priority, hence, their role as one of the initiators and main organizers of the conference along with its partners in Zurich and Activa.

Mr Hout indicated that the conference expected to offer an opportunity for participants to deliberate more on safe driving measures and policies that could be practically adopted for their companies, agencies and more importantly, the nation at large.

Tawia Addo-Ashong, programme coordinator, Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), World Bank said the UN General Assembly proclaimed the period 2011 to 2012 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety and 102 countries co-sponsored the UN Resolution.

The main goal of the Decade was to raise awareness of the impacts of road crashes on global public health and to promote interventions in order to achieve a 50% reduction in road deaths by 2020.

By Stella Danso Addai