Mr. Sam Sowah Oblejumah, a Divisional Fire Officer of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), on Thursday appealed to the media to intensify public education and awareness on Proper Rescue Trauma Care and Pre-hospital care during road traffic accidents.
He pointed out that although road accident victims might receive serious injuries, ignorance and unprofessional handling by sympathisers were a major contributory factor to the cause of deaths.
Mr. Oblejumah made the appeal during a practical demonstration and field trip with newsmen on the Accra-Tema Motorway.
The demonstration was to increase awareness on the need for proper administration of pre-health care to victims before being conveyed to nearby health facilities.
He noted that road accidents were of national concern and deaths affected national development, and called on the citizenry to get acquainted with emergency contact numbers to facilitate communication for assistance to victims.
Mr. Oblejumah who is also Head of Public Relations, said "Operation Soul Saving" initiated could not yield positive results in dealing with accident prone areas in Greater Accra Region.
"Between June 14 this year under the initiative on the Accra-Tema Motorway 17 road accidents were recorded, 21 received injuries and one person died,' he added.
He said available statistics from National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) indicated that most deaths could have been avoided because four
people die on the average daily and 1,600 deaths annually on the average.
Mr Oblejumah noted that it was based on this situation that GNFS authorities initiated "Operation Soul-Saving" that is Road Traffic Accident Rescue Operations by using rapid intervention vehicles to save lives.
Mr. Dominic Abbey, Station Officer One, in his contribution cautioned that victims trapped in crashed vehicles should be allowed to remain until assistance was sought from the GNFS to help prevent permanent paralysis.
On fire outbreak, Mr. Oblejumah said available statistics nation-wide, showed that between January 25 to July 28, this year, about 375 cases had been recorded, 853 people received injuries and 127 people died.
"If the GNFS had been well resourced and equipped with more rapid response vehicles, the number of deaths recorded would have been greatly
reduced ",he added.
Mr. Oblejumah said they had only five rapid response vehicles and required 80 nation-wide, while the five were based in Accra and operate
along Accra-Tema, Accra-Winneba and Accra-Amasaman.
He appealed to institutions, organisations, stakeholders, philanthropists and individuals to assist the GNFS to acquire the 80 rapid response pick up vehicles and oxygen sets to improve their operations.
Mr. Oblejumah said personnel of GNFS had been assisted with training from World Rescue Organisation based in the United Kingdom and United Kingdom Rescue Organisation.
He said on the African continent, only Ghana and South Africa were represented in the Road Traffic Collision Extrication Challenge held in
Frankfurt, Germany, last year with Ghana emerging the second overall best in the competition.