Jubilee partners equip service providers with skills on safety in Western Region

A number of service providers in the Western Region have been equipped with skills on safety management.

They are transport operators, mining operators, religious leaders, education authorities and media practitioners drawn from various institutions in the resource-endowed Region.

They have been empowered by the Jubilee partners through a week-long training workshop organized in partnership with the Ghana branch of Organizational Safety and Health Association OSHA-UK.

The workshop was under the theme "Improving Road Safety Management System Through Behavioural Road Safety Approach".

Jubilee Partners include Tullow Oil, Kosmos Energy, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Anadarko and PetroSA Ghana.

Addressing participants at the closing ceremony held at Raybow Hotel in Takoradi, Social Performance Advisor of Tullow Ghana, Mrs. Korkor Ohene Gyan, who represented the Jubilee Partners expressed delight at the turnout and appealed to trainees to replicate the skills acquired in their respective organizations.

She also charged them to train members of staff in their institutions especially those connected to safety management "We have an idea that once we train these people, they will also train others so that knowledge transfer will continue to contribute greatly to safety advancement in the country".

On his part, the Regional President of OSH Association UK-Ghana Region, Engr. Thomas Bismark Boakye highlighted the need to adhere to road traffic regulations to save lives.

He expressed appreciation to the participants for honouring their invitation to support the training, which aimed at raising awareness about passenger and pedestrian safety ahead of the 2018 yuletide and beyond.

Egnr. Boakye advised drivers, motorists and pedestrians to endeavour to be patient when using the road, in order to avoid needless crashes.

He said road accident is a national disaster and can cause loss of lives, vulnerability, loss of properties and livelihoods.

He revealed that in Ghana mostly people aged between 26 and 35 years lose their lives through road accidents.

He added that more than 2000 people lose their lives yearly through road accidents in Ghana.

He said, "Many accidents happen because people don't perceive the risks involved in what they are doing".

He urged that drivers shouldn't drive close to trucks when driving on highways and at top speed.

Engr. Boakye revealed "Emotion, anger, sorrowful, anxiety, fear, hate, these some of the behaviours that affect driving and can cause accidents".

He added that 94 per cent of human behaviour causes accidents in Ghana adding that all serious accidents happen just after police checkpoints.

"A safe and efficient road network as part of an integrated transportation system for all road users including pedestrians, cyclists, the disabled, animals among others", he explained.

Engr. Boakye thanked the Jubilee Partners for sponsoring this training and pleaded with them to support them periodically in road safety training and others.

Mr. Paul Kyerementeng, an accident victim who had an accident on Takoradi-Cape Coast road in 2015 gave an account of what happened to him. He advised road users should be very careful on the road and also advised his colleague drivers should stop over-speeding, over-taking, over-loading and drunk driving.

The training gave an opportunity to over seven hundred (700) participants to express their happiness about it and some were given the opportunity to contribute and ask questions.

All the participants were given well-recognised international certificates in safety.