Since its establishment, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has been organising campaigns to ensure road safety in the country.
Of particular note are the special Christmas and Easter campaigns organised annually to remind drivers of their responsibility to save life while discharging their duties.
Last Friday, the NRSA, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, launched in Accra the 2024 Stay-Alive Easter Campaign.
At the launch, the NRSA asked drivers to strictly adhere to road safety regulations to prevent road crashes during this year’s Easter festivities, which begin from this Friday till next Monday, April 1.
What the whole thing means is that there will be increase in passengers this week and the one following as a good number of people will travel to their hometowns and elsewhere for the festivities and return to base afterwards, which causes drivers to want to employ all means possible to increase their takings.
Even though the NRSA believes the strict adherence would help reduce the number of cases of road accidents, deaths and injuries in the country during the festive period, we think the previous campaigns have not helped much as the statistics show on the average that the country consistently experiences increases in road crashes.
For instance, available statistics indicate that 2,260 crashes involving 3,910 vehicles have occurred in the first two months of this year compared with 2,249 crashes involving 3,857 vehicles the same period last year.
The sad thing is that while the last year’s clashes killed 330 persons, injured 2,502 and recorded 382 pedestrian knockdowns, this year’s (2024) have killed 369, injured 2,552 and knocked down 381.
The 2024 increases over the 2023 figures in percentage terms are 0.49 per cent for crashes, 1.37 per cent for vehicles involved, 11.82 per cent for fatalities and 2.0 per cent for the injured.
Drivers in the country keep defying the road safety regulations as the major causes of crashes remain mostly their human errors.
These errors are mostly fatigue, drunk driving, reckless driving, including wrong over-taking.
We think at this juncture, there are three things that should be the focus of road safety in the country, namely driver education focusing on the psychology of the driver; the strict management of the leadership of drivers’ unions as well as vehicle owners and truly punitive laws.
Has the NRSA taken note of the types of drivers in the country and pointed out this in the bid to educate drivers, vehicle owners, and drivers’ union managers or leaders?
Like all humans, drivers exhibit certain negative traits but their cases are normally more dangerous because they are doing so on the road.
We have, for instance, fatigued drivers who, in spite of their tiredness, would still insist on driving.
What about the distracted, rushed, emotional, and new/inexperienced drivers?
Let us get to know who all these drivers are and use their traits to educate them and other stakeholders.
