The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and Promasidor Ghana Limited, producers of Cowbell, have organised a walk to raise awareness on road safety in Tamale.
The event dubbed, “Walk for Health - Stay with Cowbell,” seeks to educate road users in the metropolis on road safety regulations to ensure sanity on the road.
Mr Thomas Bismark Boakye, Northern Regional Manager of the NRSC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the walk was part of strategies by NRSC to reduce the high spate of motor accidents in the area.
“NRSC has noticed that road safety education is low in the region and this has aided in the increase in road crushes in the region.
“This walk aims at rekindling the need for road safety awareness to complement the national target of reducing cases of road accidents to a single digit,” he said.
Mr Boakye took the participants through lessons on how to walk safely on the road, the use of zebra crossings, wearing of helmet and the meaning of some road signs.
He said the exercise was crucial to the nation since Ghana, every year, continued to lose human beings who were in their productive age and were contributing to economic growth and national development.
He said families also lost most of their breadwinners resulting in the loss of livelihood for family members and dependents.
“Many children cannot continue with their education and others are battling with the payment of their school fees as a result of the lost of their breadwinners,” he said.
Mr Boakye announced that the month of November would be dedicated to promoting road safety education adding that the agency would organise cycling competition among the various keep-fit clubs.
He said the NRSC would soon start a monthly educational campaign for drivers in the metropolis as part of steps to reduce road accidents adding that the Commission had instituted an award scheme in a form of fuel coupons and cash prizes for drivers, motor riders and pedestrian who obeyed road regulations as a way of motivating them to stick to road safety regulations.
He cautioned them not to drink whilst driving and to regularly maintain their vehicles.
Mr Boakye said if drivers were to follow road regulations the rampant road accidents would have been brought to the barest minimum.
Mr Patrick Deletsu, a Sales and Marketing Manager of Promasidor Ghana Limited, said the company was ready to support NRSC in its quest to reduce road fatalities since the nation lost huge sums of money and resources due to road accidents.
He said plans were advanced to support similar exercises in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region and appealed to motorists to stop and rest when they were tired.
Source: Ghana News Agency
