The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says it is taking appropriate steps to exert some control on the operations of commercial (passenger and freight) road transport organisations so as to help fight road crashes effectively.
Confirming that the fatalities in last Tuesday’s road accident on the Cape Coast – Takoradi road had reached 35 in a press statement issued on Wednesday evening [January 15, 2020], the NRSC said the steps it had initiated to help reduce road crashes include a vigorous sensitisation of the operators of the new mandate of the Authority.
In addition to that, the NRSC was training some 13,000 high-risk commercial drivers as well as the development of a Legislative Instrument for the regulation of road transport operations pursuant to the National Road Safety Authority Act, 2019 (Act 993).
The accident involved two buses during the early hours of Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at about 12:10 am at Dompoase near the Komenda Junction on the main Cape Coast – Takoradi highway in the Central Region.
The 35 total fatalities arising from the crash as of Wednesday morning also had 25 cases of varying degrees of injuries still on admission and 29, who had been treated and discharged.
Preliminary investigations according to the NRSC had confirmed that the vehicles involved were public service transport vehicles operated by GPRTU from the Kaneshie and Takoradi (Accra) terminals.
They were a Hyundai bus with registration number GN 3780-10 and a Man Diesel bus with registration number GR 5704-18 that were travelling from Accra to Takoradi and Takoradi to Accra respectively and collided head-on at the accident scene.
Currently, the injured are receiving varied treatments at the Effia Nkwanta and the Cape Coast Teaching Hospitals.
The bodies of the 35 deceased victims comprising of 21 males, 11 females and 3 toddlers have been deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital morgue awaiting identification, autopsy and collection.
The NRSC said while it commiserates with the families of victims of this incident, the Authority has pursuant to its mandate commissioned a multi-disciplinary crash investigation into the crash to determine the contributory factors and institutional lapses that may have accounted for the crash. This among others will inform remedial actions and measures.
“The Authority will wish to assure the motoring public that, it is taking appropriate steps to exert some control on the operations of commercial (passenger and freight) road transport organisations. These steps include a vigorous sensitization of the operators of the new mandate of the Authority, training of some 13,000 high-risk commercial drivers as well as the development of a Legislative Instrument for the regulation of road transport operations pursuant to the National Road Safety Authority Act, 2019 (Act 993),” it said.
“In the interim, the public is reminded that road safety is a way of life that can be achieved by observing basic safety precautions on speeding, wrongful overtaking, fatigue and distractive driving, while passengers are expected to assume frontline roles by speaking up against driver misbehaviour.
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Daily Graphic
