The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), has donated assorted items made up of detergents, washing soaps and fruits, to the Accident Centre of the 37 Military Hospital, as part of activities marking World Remembrance Day.
The National Road Safety Week observed on the theme: “Empowering the Passenger and Pedestrian to demand Road Safety,” aimed at reducing fatalities in the country, sought to create awareness to road users who tend to disregard road traffic regulations.
As part of the celebration, the NRSC and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) went to the Fountain Gate Chapel, Empowerment Pastures, at Afonkor, to educate members of the church on the need to spread the message on road safety.
Mr David Osafo Adonteng, Director of Planning and Programmes at the NRSC, urged the church members to help create awareness on road safety, adding, “the safety we’re talking about is what we make for ourselves, not someone making it for us, so speak up when you find any misbehavoiur on the path of the driver, because everybody has a role to play, not only police officers.”
Mr Adonteng said many people attribute accidents to spiritual matters, and to destiny, adding, “it is scientific, and therefore, can be controlled, so I want us today to advocate for safety”.
He disclosed that the NRSC would soon introduce electronic road safety devices to help check persist road accidents which claim thousands of lives each year.
In Ghana, road crashes are responsible for at least six deaths a day, and 18,000 a year, resulting in several thousands of injuries and incapacitation.
Sixty per cent of the victims of road traffic crashes are between 15 and 55 years, while the estimated cost of crashes to the economy is 1.6 per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product, valued at 419 million dollars in 2009.
Lt/Col Beatrice Laryea, Nursing Officer in charge of the Surgical Division at the 37 Military Hospital, who received the items, was grateful to the NRSC for the donation, and urged them to continue with their education to reduce needless accidents and carnage on our roads.
She said the hospital was faced with the problem of spacing in the wards, because it is now a referring point, adding “sometimes all the beds get full, in that those who need admission have to wait for a patient to be discharged before getting a bed.”
She appealed for wheel chairs, stretchers, cervical color, and movable screens, to assist them with their work.
The World Remembrance Day was adopted by the UN to set aside the third Sunday of November every year to remember the millions either killed or injured in road crashes, and the tremendous cost of those tragedies to their families, as well as the burden of such disasters