The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has appealed to Ghanaians to shun acts of indiscipline that result in accidents and fatalities on the roads.

According to the road safety regulation organisation, the country will continue to record fatalities on the roads if drivers do not change their behaviour.

“What is important in the fight against the canker on the roads is for drivers to put turn a new leaf by being disciplined on the roads”, Director in charge of Programmes and Planning at National Roads Safety Authority (NRSA), Mr David Osafo Adonteng, told Iddrisu Awudu on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Friday, 10 December 2021.

“Until drivers change their ways, I’m sorry to say we will continue to record many of these carnages on the roads”, he said.

He said it is toward changing some of these attitudes on the roads that the safety authority has come out with the awareness creation campaign dubbed ‘Stay Alive’ to appeal to the conscience of drivers across the country to know that if they remain undisciplined, you will not stay alive. 

He said if Ghanaians continue to obey traffic regulations, the rate of accidents can be minimised especially, during festive seasons.

However, he noted that if Ghanaians refuse to obey the traffic rules, the carnage will persist.

According to him, road safety is a shared responsibility and must be observed by every road user.

He took the opportunity to advise long-distance drivers to go along with an assistant driver.

He said this makes it easy for one driver to start the journey for the other to end it.

As an agency responsible for road safety, we will continue to create awareness on the situation for drivers to change their behaviour on the road.

He further appealed to passengers to be vigilant on the road and report any bad bahaviour to the authority.

He said the Authority could be reached on toll-free number 194 so the errant drivers could be punished.

For his part, Dr Samuel Sasu Mensah, the commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, reiterated that accidents in the country are caused by acts of indiscipline on the part of drivers.

He said the carnage that usually occurs ahead of the Christmas festivities is a result of gross indiscipline on the part of drivers.

“Many drivers in the country have not taken the pains to read and know the laws governing the use of the road”, he added.

“They don’t know the road has rules contained in the Road Traffic Act and the Road Safety Regulation among others”, he said.