The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey, has urged all stakeholders to be guided by the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030 to inform the ongoing development, implementation and evaluation of road safety activities to help reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.

According to her, it had become necessary for the government to focus on safety, as a core value within the Safe System and sustainable mobility to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries. 

The Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety was developed in October this year by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) regional commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety with the target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. 

The Global Plan aligns with the Stockholm Declaration, by emphasising the importance of a holistic approach to road safety and calling on continued improvements in the design of roads and vehicles; enhancement of laws and law enforcement; and provision of timely, life-saving emergency care for the injured. The Global Plan also reflects the Stockholm Declaration’s promotion of policies to promote walking, cycling and using public transport as inherently healthy and environmentally sound modes of transport.

Elizabeth KT Sackey who is the first female Chief Executive of the AMA said this on Monday when the Assembly in collaboration with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) and the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), donated items worth GH8,000 to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital in Accra to commemorate this year's World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. 

The items include detergents, beverages, sanitisers, medical hand gloves, nose masks, wheelchair, clutches, groceries among others. 

The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is commemorated each year to remember the many millions who have been killed and seriously injured on the world’s roads and to acknowledge the suffering of all affected victims, families and communities. 

The AMA boss noted that findings from the AMA's Road Safety Report indicated that the number of reported road traffic crashes in Accra rose from 1,703 in 2019 to 1,774 in 2020 representing a 4 per cent increase adding that road traffic deaths also increased from 103 in 2019 to 136 in 2020 recording a 32 per cent increase.

She said the Assembly in collaboration with the BIGRS had been working to reduce road crashes through several projects, including capacity building of stakeholders, road safety enhancement works among others. 

"Supported by BIGRS, AMA has collaborated with key road safety stakeholder institutions to undertake several projects and interventions within the city of Accra. Notable among the many interventions are; Launch of the AMA Road Safety Strategy, 3 Road Safety Reports for AMA spanning 2011 to 2020, and a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan that seeks to safeguard the safety of pedestrians as they commute within the city space... There have been donations of several policing items to the police MTTD including lighting batons, cones, reflective vests, hand gloves and the laser cam 4-speed detection device," she said. 

She used the opportunity to express sympathy to all victims of road accidents and their families and urged road users to abide by traffic rules as the Christmas festivities approach. 

The Director-General of National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, in a speech read on her behalf, said more than 5,000 road accidents were recorded in the Greater Accra Region from January to October this year. 

She noted that out of the figure 3,382 were seriously injured while 555 died, representing 23.3 per cent of national road fatalities. 

The AMA boss accompanied by officials from the NRSA and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital later visited the Trauma and Orthopaedic Centre of the Ridge Hospital to sympathize with road crash victims on admission.