By Enock Akonnor enockakonnor2013@gmail.com
The Ashanti Regional Director for the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has critiqued KMA and duty bearers in the region for making road safety regulations ineffective.
Mr. Alexander Ayatah told www.leakynews.net point blank in an interview that until KMA, the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) wake up from their deep sleep by giving up on their laxity posture, the region will continue to witness people dieing on the highways “and of course in the urban areas” out of road crashes.
Still in the interview he granted on the sidelines of a training workshop organised for News Editors on Wednesday 5th April 2023 at Golden Bean Hotel-Kumasi, the Director said “Duty bearers have failed to act according to the policies and procedures”, he stated.
Citing the Central Business District (CBD) of the Kumasi Metropolis, he bemoaned how pavements which are marked to serve as walkways for pedestrians have been taken over by traders at the full glare of authorities of KMA.
He said Kumasi City officials are privy to the foregoing nuisance, castigating further that “they tolerate these traders even to the extent of issuing tickets to them”.
Mr. Ayatah mentioned that, even commercial drivers find no appropriate place to stop within the CBD to offload passengers “and the fact that they have no proper place to stop means anywhere they arrive they will stop and that is causing so much problem”.
“Everywhere is congested so it is difficult to make a move when an ambulance is coming”, he added.
Speaking amidst a high display of braggadocios, he noted that commercial drivers’ compliance to road safety regulations is very terrible in the region.
“The fact of the matter is that there is no enforcement.
Enforcement is zero on the street.
Though the police are on the streets, their ability to enforce is limited. They are told to do less than what they are supposed to do”
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
The workshop was organised in collaboration with the National Road Safety Authority and Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety with the overarching goal of training News Editors with outstanding track records in covering local issues related to; public health, infrastructure and municipal governance in order to reduce road crash fatalities in Kumasi and beyond.
The workshop aimed at complementing the general road safety work with road safety news reports carried out by trained journalists.
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