The World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims was held on Monday, November 16, 2020, by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in the capital of the Ashanti Region to advocate for road traffic injury prevention.

The Day endorsed by the World Health Organization to provide practical guidance to stakeholders of roads was started by RoadPeace in 1993 and has since been observed and promoted worldwide to also support families who have been affected by the demise of their people through road accidents.

It was also established to prompt the various road participants to take responsibility in order to prevent future accidents through role clarification especially during the end of the year to reduce the rate at which accident occurs.

The KMA held its edition at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Accident and Emergency Unit, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropists and addressing the gathering, the Representative of the Road Safety Authority, Emmanuel Acheampong spoke on the various measures put up by the WHO to reduce road accidents which cause physical, financial and mental effects for victims and the country as a whole.

According to him, tricycles, known much as “pragia” have contributed to the numerical growth of the accident statistics. He admonished drivers on the need to keep up with the various safety guidelines to fade the numbers which are quite threatening.

“Motor accidents are part of the decade of action for road safety and the United Nations have put in measures in 2020 to decrease road accidents by 50 per cent yet it keeps rising,” he said.

“Ghana loses 1.6 per cent of our Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to accidents through footing of bills of victims and buying medicines to save lives, monies which could have been used to develop the country.

“Besides, the value of life cannot be quantified and since statistics were introduced in 1991, over 45,000 people have fallen victims to accidents.

“Overspeeding influences accidents by 60 per cent, driving whiles attending to phone calls is also key in the setup.

"12,096 cases of motor accidents have been recorded this year as Motorbikes and tricycle have a total of 4,629. The figures keep increasing,” he added.

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With the focus of people shifted to the prevention and adhering of the COVID-19 protocols, the KMA Mayor, Honorable Osei Assibey Antwi jogged memories that people must be strongminded when driving on roads and also follow the safety signs to ward off road upsets.

“Our focus should not be only on the virus and other disease prevention but accidents as well. Drivers have been educated on the need to adhere to the road safety signs in order to resolve accidents. The Police are purposely on our roads to make sure the right thing is done.

"Let’s not forget that the government invests much in people we lose through accidents and their demise costs the nation a lot. We all have a role to play in making sure there is a reduction hence the government’s construction of better roads to limit accident."

He also reminding contractors to put up decent roads and also work on time for usage assuring that KMA will keep on educating stakeholders to help define their respective roles.

Donations were made to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.