The Accra Metropolitan Assembly in collaboration with the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety is set to intensify its road safety campaign in a bid to reduce road crashes.
The head of Public Affairs at the AMA, Gilbert Ankrah told Citi News other municipalities within the country will adopt the campaign which is dubbed, ‘School Girl’ to help check road crashes.
Mr Ankrah assured that the programme, which started in December 2019 to ensure the city was accident-free during the yuletide, would be extended and sustained.
“I can tell you that soon, the Bloomberg Philanthropist of Global Road Safety is factoring the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to do the same thing they have been doing with Accra to help reduce the fatalities,” he said.
He also noted that one of the points of emphasis of the assembly was reducing overspeeding, which has been noted as the highest cause of road crashes in Ghana.
“So if you have witnessed, all over Accra, all over the city now where ever you go you will see speed limit signs that have been placed on our various road corridors,” he said.
AMA road safety campaign
As part of efforts towards ensuring an accident-free festive season, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety in November 2019 launched a road safety campaign dubbed the ‘School Girl’.
Over the years, there has been a hike in road crashes during Christmas festivities.
Although there was a slight decrease in road fatalities in 2019, the Assembly noted that it was committed to reducing it to the barest minimum.
As part of the campaign, the Assembly embarked on a mass media campaign and an enforcement drive on speeding in the coming weeks to help reduce speeding above the posted limit in Accra.
AMA Road Safety Report
According to the AMA’s road safety report, 75% of vehicles in the city tend to drive above the prescribed speed limit, while motorcycle riders also over-speed, a situation which is a major cause of road crashes.
Last month the AMA launched its second AMA Road Safety Report in Accra in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).
Findings from the Report which covered the period 2016-2018, revealed that the number of reported road traffic crashes in Accra increased from 1,697 in 2016 to 1,812 in 2018 with serious injuries and deaths also increasing by 89 per cent and 51 per cent from 2017 to 2018 respectively.
It also showed that the proportion of vehicles speeding above the posted limit in the Accra Metropolitan area has increased from 68% in 2018 to 77% as of April 2019 resulting in a rise of road traffic crashes
The report further analysed data from 2016 to 2018, which was derived from police crash reports and hospital records, together with observational studies on road injury risk factors.
It indicated that a higher proportion of motorcycles were also observed speeding relative to other vehicle types (86%) in the most recent round followed by sports utility vehicles (SUVs) (83%) and saloons at (78%).