The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Yaw Barimah, has urged motorists, pedestrians and road agencies to play their expected roles effectively to ensure a reduction in accidents from now to December.
He cautioned that posterity would not forgive the current generation if they failed to progressively reduce road traffic accidents when they knew that road traffic accidents were preventable.
Mr. Barimah was opening a two-day Mid-Year Review Conference of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) at Koforidua on Tuesday on the theme: "Safety on our roads is the responsibility of all."
He recalled that the Ministry of Transportation in 2001 launched a five-year National Road Safety strategy and Action Plans to serve as a broad framework of co-ordinated efforts for all road safety interventions up to 2005.
The Regional Minister disclosed that between 2001 and 2004, vehicle population increased from 350,000 to over 700,000 and within the same period road accidents decreased from 11,129 in 2001 to 10,744 in 2004, while fatalities increased marginally from 1,660 to 1,718.
Statistics, he said, indicated that for the first three months of the year, there were 4,782 accidents and that 407 persons were killed with 2,220 persons sustaining various degrees of injuries from accidents and described the phenomenon as "unacceptable."
Mr. Barimah said the government had since 2001 demonstrated its commitment towards road safety through a number of policy interventions, including enhanced human resource and technical capacity development in the Building and Road Research Institute(BRRI), the Motor Traffic Transport Unit(MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, the NRSC and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA).
He also cited the enactment of the Road Traffic Act 683 and the donation of 40 ambulances to the newly-established Ghana Ambulance Service.
The acting Executive Director of the NRSC, Mr Noble John Appiah, in his welcoming address, reminded the Regional NRSCs that they had a moral and professional responsibility to ensure that road traffic accidents and their associated injuries, fatalities and damage to property were reduced and prevented.
He said, in the light of recent spate of road traffic accidents within the first half year, they have to work hard to inspire confidence in the travelling public that their safety on the road was assured.