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Ghana to host Africa Road Safety
Conference
Accra, Jan. 30, GNA - A regulation to ban motorists from the
use of mobile phones while driving has been placed before
Cabinet for study and approval.
When approved the Police would be empowered to exact spot
fines and other penalties spelt under the regulation on
offending motorists.
Briefing the press in Accra ahead of the Fourth African Road
Safety Conference to be held in Accra next week, Mr John
Osei-Asamoah, Chief Director, Ministry of Transportation,
said the use of mobile phones while driving reduced the
attention of the driver and often led to accidents.
Ghana is hosting the conference from February 5 to February
7 2007 to review progress made by countries on the Continent
to improve road safety and also reduce the carnage on the
roads.
About 200 stakeholders and 25 Ministers of Transport, Health
and The Interior from Africa would attend the three-day
conference, which would also seek to advance the development
of national action plans for road safety for countries in
the region and plan the implementation of recommendations of
the World Report on Traffic Injury Prevention and the
African Road Safety Initiative.
Mr Osei-Asamoah said most motorists usually did not adhere
to the simple safety rule of stopping their vehicle to make
and receive calls hence the need to punish offenders to
serve as deterrent to other road users.
He said the conference would create a platform to identify
innovative ways of mobilising resources to progressively
reduce and prevent road traffic accidents and to advance the
development of national strategies and action plans.
Mr Osei-Asamoah said Ghana had over the years evolved
various measures to reduce accident through the
strengthening of the National Road Safety Commission and the
enforcement agencies to enable them to perform their duties
in line with the best practices in the world.
Some of the plans adopted are education of motorists and
pedestrians. Currently efforts are underway in collaboration
with the Ghana Education Service to include road safety in
the curriculum at the basic and secondary school levels as
well as in teacher training colleges.
On the theme of the conference "Road Safety and the
Millennium Development Goals: Reducing the Rate of African
Fatalities by half by 2015," Mr Osei-Asamaoh said it
reflected the urgent need for African countries to develop
and implement creative and innovative measures to tackle the
rise in road traffic accidents in order to meet the poverty
reduction targets in the Millennium Development Goals.
He urged all road users to be responsible since their action
or inaction could contribute to road traffic accident.
GNA
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