The life of pedestrians at Lapaz has been the worry of the general public for some years now, due to the unavailability of an overhead bridge for pedestrians.

The George Walker Bush Highway (the N1) has claimed quite a number of lives since its construction, leaving most users of the road in fear and panic.

Fortunately, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has launched a Pedestrian Road Safety Action Plan to reduce road accidents in the country.

The Plan hopes to address pedestrian safety at authorized crossings and junctions, improve walking on streets, manage public street spaces, ensure the safety of school journeys, as well as safe speeds by vehicles.

The Action Plan also serves a broad cross-section of road users and enforcement professionals and addresses the needs of vulnerable road users, the necessity of road architecture as well as the critical role of enforcement.

The Chief Executive Officer of the AMA, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, who launched the plan at the Accra City Hotel said the AMA’s vision is to create a safe, smart, sustainable and resilient modern city, adding that one of the objectives set to achieve the vision is to reduce traffic fatalities and save lives.

“As we are all aware, the Lapaz intersection has been identified as the site with the highest road crashes in the city, and AMA under this Partnership for Healthy Cities is determined to change the narrative about the intersection. New speed-reduction measures, widening of the pedestrian curbs, changes to traffic signal timings, would be introduced at Lapaz intersection on the George Walker Bush Highway (the N1) in the first quarter of 2018 to enhance safety of pedestrians.

This is especially critical for vulnerable road users including children, the elderly, physically challenged persons, bicyclists and motor riders”, he disclosed.

The AMA boss again pointed out that one of the Assembly’s primary goals is to improve the quality of life of people living within the city by ensuring the availability of proper road infrastructure, to ensure safety and enhance movement of all road users.

He said  the AMA and the Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, recently launched an anti-drunk driving campaign for all drivers not to “drink and  drive” and cautioned them to comply with the directive.

He further indicated that the  MTTD taskforce and the Assembly’s Metro Guards  equipped with gadgets donated by Bloomberg Philanthropies would be deployed throughout the season and beyond to keep the streets safe and expressed commitment to work to make Accra safe for all road users.

A Representative of the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), Engineer Pat Onny,  in a remark said the vision of the department is to attain efficient cost, effective and sustainable integrated urban road transport system that is  responsive to the needs of society and pedestrians to have their safety needs met.

She mentioned that pedestrian safety was a collective responsibility, and expressed the department’s commitments to collaborate with other stakeholders to improve pedestrian safety.

“Most recommendations that usually appear in road safety audit report for vulnerable road users are the absence of continuous walkways and safe crossing facilities. This the department has done on most of our urban roads in Ghana. Some locations in Greater Accra that are worth mentioning are Liberation Road, Giffard Road, and Kanda High way. On these roads, you will see either defined walkways, pedestrian’s footbridges, traffic lights or combination of them that meet the safety needs of the pedestrians”, she added.

A representative of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Cadbery Hamilson, in a remark commended the AMA and all stakeholders for developing the Action Plan to ensure pedestrian safety in the metropolitan.

“Road traffic crashes is responsible for an average of 2000 deaths in a year in our country and every day, six people are killed on our roads… Nearly 39% of deaths are pedestrians. 66% of these pedestrians are knocked down while crossing the road with 23% of pedestrian deaths involving school children below the age of 16”, she said.

The five year Action Plan which was developed with support from the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGS), AMEND Road Safety Ghana and other local stakeholders, would be coordinated by the AMA with the co-ownership of the Department of Urban Roads, Ghana Highway Authority and the National Road Safety Commission.

Source: Kasapafmonline