NRSC to conduct road safety training programmes nationwide

Accra, Feb.13 GNA - The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) is to institute a nationwide road safety training and education programme for teachers, parents and school children as part of its campaign on road safety.

It is expected that the programme would provide parents and teachers with road user knowledge as well as train the children to become better road users when they become adults. Mrs May (May) Obiri-Yeboah in-Charge of Managing, Planning and Education of the NRSC, announced this at a programme for the education and training of parents, teachers and children at Gbawe, near Accra, which was well patronized.

She said between 1994 and 2004 pedestrian fatality figures stood at 6,658 representing 43.6 per cent of the national fatality cases. She said during the same period, 2,689 children below 14 years representing 21.9 per cent, were killed in motor accidents. She said pedestrian accidents were one of the most prominent causes of premature injury, handicap and deaths in the world. Mrs Obiri-Yeboah also called for a change in road user behaviour, which she said was a key factor responsible for accidents in the country.

She urged parents and guardians to consider themselves as partners and to complement the effort of road safety teachers. She said parents should teach their children the rules of road crossing, survival skills and traffic safety information to children so that they survived in today's traffic.

Mrs Annie Vivian Antwi, a Resource Person with the NRSC, said the objective of the campaign was to bring about sustained reduction in child pedestrian accidents and casualties through education, dramatisation and demonstration.