The upcoming public-private partnership programme geared towards addressing the issues of transport and road safety was held under the theme: “Mitigating the risk of road traffic injuries at the District level to promote safety, to reverse the negative trends by 50 per cent by 2030”.

Mr Samuel Oppong, Managing Director of Vehicle Inspection and Technical Organisation (VITO), said road carnages has claimed many lives around the world adding that road safety is a critical issue and deserves the needed attention.

He said in Ghana over 10000 lives have been lost between 2015 and 2018 through road accidents in reported cases only.

Mr Oppong said there is the need to form a concerted multi-sector approach in dealing with the concern.

“To avert this situation, there is the need to adopt a holistic and pragmatic approach towards reversing the negative trend,” he said.

Mr Oppong said there is a need for a comprehensive and intense education on road safety adding that it should not be the sole prerogative of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).

He said it would also be important for the country to create a “Central Traffic Data Base (CTD)” of all vehicles in the country.

Mr Oppong said such system would involve re-registration of all vehicles in the country within a space of 6-8 months period.“For operational purposes, the data should be stored in a central data base which will be accessible by specially defined critical stakeholders. This could be achieved through the installation of appropriate and adequate network infrastructure for all stakeholders.”

He said insurance should be made effective and the important role of insurance companies should be encouraged as their role seeks to mitigate the risk of accidents and damage to property.

“This will cause people to be careful not to lose the confidence of insurance companies and help them adhere to road user regulations,” Mr Oppong said.Superintendent Samuel Sasu-Mensah of Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service said road crashes and their resultant injuries and deaths posed development challenges to the society and also militates against the socio-economic development of the country.

He said statistics at the MTTD indicates that road traffic accidents from January to November 2018 as compared to last year has increased as the total number of accident cases increased from 11709 in 2017, to 12396 in 2018 with persons killed, increasing from 1862 last year to 2118 this year.

He appealed to road users to behave responsibly during the festive occasion.