Decentralise road safety commission now to save lives

Chief Executive Officer for Safe Journey Foundation Mr. Patrick Kwame Frimpong is calling on government to consider decentralising the activities of Ghana Road Safety Commission to the district level.

He defended that his suggestion if effected will decrease the workload on the limited number of staff of the commission and will again ensure efficient and effective work delivery.

The commission which at the moment is decentralised to the regional level he stated is hampered from carrying out a full scale inspection vis-a-vis drivers adherence to road safety regulations especially at remote areas.

Flouting of road safety codes he indicated is witnessing an astronomic rise since drivers operating on isolated roads at the district level assume they are beyond the reach of officials of the commission.

Most commercial drivers he underlined have capitalised on the foregoing shortfall and indulge themselves in myriads of road malpractices such as overloading, over speeding, driving without license, expired documents covering vehicles all that.

Drivers commute passengers in rickety vehicles in remote communities because they of the view that they can’t be apprehended by officials of the Commission since they(road safety staff) are totally absent in the operations in such areas.

According to a five paged road safety proposal copied to the office of THE PRESS RADIO, Mr. Patrick Frimpong is calling for the formation of District Road Safety Commission (DRSC).

The formation of DRSC he stressed should constitute Chief Executive Officers of MMDAs, District MTTD Commander, District Health Director, representatives from; the District Fire Service, Urban or Feeder Roads, DVLA, National Health Insurance Scheme, Transport Union, District Education Directorate, Insurance companies, District Director for Road safety Commission and a person who will be appointed by President as the chairman or chairperson.

Aside the above listed capacities making up DRSC, he is again calling for the formation of a task force.

They(task force) per their line of duty will conduct daily checks on vehicles, report on damaged road signs, apprehend recalcitrant drivers among others.

He again advised government to set a day aside for National Road Safety awareness creation.

This he underlined will help reduce to the lowest level the rate of accident occurrence in the country.

Source: Thepressradio.com/Enock Akonnor