Street lights critical to accident and crime control – NRSA
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has called on city mayors, chief executives of districts and the Ministry of Energy to provide street lights and illumination of town centres and major highways to reduce road accidents and highway robberies at night.
The Head of Regulations, Inspection and Compliance of NRSA Kwame Koduah Atuahene pointed out that the current public outcry about the lack of street lighting on highways should be a wake-up call for city managers to come up with immediate solutions to address the problem.
“As stakeholders in ensuring the safety of road users in the country, it is critical for us all to make this issue a priority, especially as we prepare to enter the heavy traffic season and shopping period of the year”, Mr Koduah Atuahene advised.
Mr Koduah Atuahene was speaking after the mid-year review meeting of the NRSA in Takoradi, at which a citation was awarded to him by the NRSA for his instrumentality in advocating the passage of the NRSA ACT 2019 (ACT 993) and his leadership in the development of a draft Legislative Instrument, (L.I.) to provide meaning and expression to the NRSA mandate.
He said the failure of some district assemblies, cities and municipalities to abide by their own established standards in city planning and provision of lighting on streets and highways pose a major risk to road users, especially at night.
The NRSA’s Head of Regulations, Inspections and Compliance suggested that law enforcement agencies intensify patrols in areas with less illumination at night, hoping for a prompt action from the relevant agencies to solve what he called a “pressing issue”.
Mr Atuahene is in charge of regulatory administration of the commercial road transport sector and enforcement of road safety standards, procedures and rules against duty bearers.
In this role, he leads the task of ensuring an improvement in road safety-related services by all road safety stakeholders in both the public and private sectors.
The NRSA, he said, will continue to advocate for the proper usage and observance of road regulations by all road users as part of its mandate, stressing the shared responsibility of all stakeholders; pedestrians, motorists, transport unions, law enforcement and city managers, in making our roads and highways safer for all.
Mr Koduah Atuahene observed that in many of our cities, pedestrian walkways are non-existent. Where available, they have been taken over by traders and exposing pedestrians to the risk of a crash in urbanized environments.
“Our law enforcement and city authorities must ensure that our roads are not turned into hawking and selling centres. The Authority will soon take the fight to city authorities to ensure that they deal with pedestrian obstructions within their jurisdiction for the public good “, Mr Koduah Atuahene stressed.