Establish Road Emergency Information Unit- PROTOA

The Progressive Transport Owners' Association (PROTOA) has suggested the establishment of a Road Emergency Information Unit to be attached to the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit.

It said such a unit should be opened to the public in a manner that would make it possible for them to report dangers and breaches on the roads by drivers, mates, passengers, pedestrians and other road users.

In an interaction with the media in Kumasi on Thursday Mr Raphael Quainoo, Ashanti Regional Chairman of PROTOA, said the establishment of the unit was crucial in inculcating discipline into drivers and road users to reduce accidents.

The interaction was to highlight a proposal it had presented to stakeholder agencies in the transport industry on measures to address the high incidence of fatal road accidents in Ghana.

The proposal seeks to advise government on measures it deems necessary to be implemented to ensure safety on the roads, especially as the 2008 election draws near.

Mr Quainoo said the proposal was necessitated by the fact that Ghana was ranked as one of the worst accident-prone countries in the world.

According to figures made available by the National Road Safety Commission in the run-up to the 2004 election, 12,166 road accidents were recorded which resulted in the death of 2,182 people.

The Regional PROTOA Chairman said as the electioneering campaign was getting hotter and hotter it behoved policy makers and the law enforcement agencies to strive to enforce road traffic rules and regulations to the letter to save lives.