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African Road Safety conference opens
Accra, Feb. 5, GNA – Mr Magnus Opare-Asamoah, Deputy
Minister of Transportation, on Monday reiterated
Government’s commitment to improving road transport as a
vehicle for enhancing socio-economic development and poverty
reduction.
It is in this connection that the Government had in the past
six years devoted a chunk of resources to construct and
maintain the roads, he said.
For instance in 2006, the Government used about 33 per cent
of the total national investment budget on road construction
and maintenance.
Speaking at the opening of the African Road Safety
Conference, Mr Opare-Asamoah said safety remained a key
consideration in the development and use of road
infrastructure and transport services in the country’s quest
to achieve national development agenda of a middle income
status of 1,000 dollars per capita by 2015.
Participants at the three-day conference would review
progress made by countries on the Continent to improve road
safety and also to reduce carnage on the roads.
About 200 stakeholders and 25 Ministers of Transport, Health
and The Interior from Africa would attend the 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 Opare-Asamoah said although the country had made
significant strides in dealing with road traffic accidents,
the country was not out of the woods yet.
The road traffic accident fatality rate has reduced from
40.7 in 1998 to 19 at the end of 2005.
Mr Opare-Asamoah said in collaboration with other
stakeholders, the Ministry was seriously tackling the road
safety challenge through education; enforcement of traffic
regulations; engineering through the identification and
improvement of hazardous spots and the training of drivers.
He said road safety auditing at the feasibility, design,
construction and post-construction stages were now major
components of road programmes.
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of The Interior, said
governments on the Continent must put road safety at the
centre of their countries’ development agenda.
He said the high fatality rates called for strategic
planning to achieve sustainable action.
The conference is being held on the theme: "Road Safety and
the Millennium Development Goals: Reducing the Rate of
African Fatalities by Half by 2015."
GNA
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