By: Joyce Kantam Kolamong
The National Road Safety Authority, NRSA, in the Northern region, has began its ‘Stay Alive’, campaign to educate the public on how to be safety conscious before, during and after the Christmas festivities.
Staff of NRSA and volunteers have been visiting public spaces such as traffic lights, lorry stations, departure terminals, markets, supermarkets and schools in the Tamale metropolis to sensitize people to the ‘dos and dons’ when they are using the road.
The Northern Regional Director of NRSA, Mohammed Abdul Samad, in an interview with GBCNews, bemoaned the rate at which motorists particularly, exhibit total disregard for road traffic protocols in the metropolis.
He said the Authority is not relenting in its efforts and is working assiduously to nip the phenomenon of road crashes in the bud to secure lives.
The NRSA launched the “Stay Alive” campaign to advocate for compliance with road safety regulations.
The campaign, among other objectives, is to induce positive behavioural change among road users to observe and advocate compliance with road traffic regulations and report infractions while eliciting commitment to safety for strict enforcement of regulations and laws.
The Campaign espouses road users to be more conscious, more involved, more responsible, more accountable and to accept full responsibility for the carnage on the road rather than to attribute it to the work of the devil.
According to Mr Mohammed Abdul Samad , road safety is a shared and collective responsibility which requires all stakeholders to get involved in the campaign.He advised the public to be cautious on the road and develop a positive road safety culture in their collective effort to help reduce road fatalities and associated injuries.
On the part of Pedestrians, Mr. Mohammed urged that they always checked their surroundings when on the road, and look out for safe crossing facilities like pedestrian crossing points or footbridges when crossing the road.
He further pleaded with drivers to be more cautious and tolerant on the road especially as Christmas is approaching and reminded the public to be mindful of their safety and that of other road users.