The National Road Safefy Authority in the Central Region has begun a sensitization exercise on road safety tips in some schools in the Awutu Senya East Municipality.
School children were sensitized on the need to stay focused and behave appropriately when using the road.
The Authority believes that aside from reckless driving road, misbehaviour or lack of knowledge on the part of pedestrians also lead to road crashes, hence the decision to embark on the sensitization exercise for pupils who are part of the most vulnerable when it comes to road usage.
Speaking to Citi News after the exercise at the OdukpongKpehe MA Primary School, Planning and Programs Manager for the National Road Safety Authority in the Central Region, Perpetual Akoto Ofori, indicated that the exercise is expected to reduce pedestrian knockdowns among children of school going age.
“The exercise is to sensitize children to be of good behaviour while using the road. We have seen that most of our crash problems emanate from attitudinal problem so we want to imbibe in them the road safety attitude.Together we may change the mindset of people misbaheving on the road. We also taught them the implications of all that they do on the road so that they are cautious while using the road” the Planning and Programs Manager said.
Pupils from the OdukpongKpehe MA Primary School were educated on safety tips while using the road.
They were also encouraged to be road safety ambassadors by preaching to their parents, family and friends to help reduce road crashes especially pedestrian knock downs.
She said the Authority has plans of introducing Road Safety clubs in most schools to help in reducing road crashes.
“Just to make the whole sensitization exercise interractive, we want to have road safety clubs in schools we visit and make them ambassadors”.
Personnel from the Authority also engaged commercial drivers at the Obom lorry terminal on ways to reduce road accidents.
Commercial drivers were also taken through regourious processes to be able to identify worn out car tyres and the recommended ones needed to reduce road accidents.
According to the Authority, 20% of road accidents are caused by tyre bursts, with majority of them being caused by excess pressure inflated into the tyre by vulcanisers.
“We have realized that 20% of road accidents are caused by tyre bursts with the main cause being too much pressure inflated by the vulcanizers in the tyre. Our observations were that most of the tyres the drivers used had expired and most of them don’t also use the recommended tyre pressure. Most of the drivers had worn out spare tyres which is not in line with the recommended standards,” Akwesi Asare Osei, leader of the team in the Obom enclave told Citi News.
The team also indicated its preparedness to engage vulcanizers espacially those on the Accra-Cape Coast highway on the recommended tyre standards.
“Road safety is a collective responsibility, and we are ready to engage all the stakeholders to create awareness and reduce road crashes” the team leader said.