Sort out Covid-19 and street accidents concurrently – Gov’t instructed

A two-day coaching workshop on the event of street security mass media marketing campaign has led to Accra with a name on policymakers to think about street security as a  preventable public well being disaster that should be addressed with a way of urgency. 

The coaching workshop which was organised by the Nationwide Highway Security Authority, Accra Metropolitan Meeting and Bloomberg Philanthropies for World Highway Security (BIGRS) sought to equip communication officers and managers throughout the metropolis,  nationwide degree and street security organisations with the data on the way to undertake efficient mass media marketing campaign to assist scale back street crashes within the nation. 

Talking on the workshop Dr Raphael Awuah, the African Regional Advisor on Information and Surveillance for Important Methods,  recommended that extra consideration should be given to problems with street security simply as was being executed to curb the unfold of the COVID-19 pandemic within the nation. 

He expressed considerations over why extra consideration and sources had been directed to forestall the unfold of the COVID   neglecting problems with street visitors deaths which had been raging for many years.

Dr Awuah identified that there was growing proof to point out that street visitors crashes led to a number of deaths and accidents yearly including that this contributed considerably to the World Burden of Highway Visitors Crashes.

In accordance with him, information from the World Burden of Highway Visitors Crashes in lower-middle-income international locations for the yr  2019 to 2020 indicated that street visitors accidents have been the tenth main explanation for deaths noting that the years 2013 and 2016, recorded roughly 27 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in Africa. 

The Information Advisor stated casualties from street visitors crashes constituted a excessive proportion of all admitted circumstances in Accra, citing a two-year examine by the  Accident Centre of the Korle-Bu Instructing Hospital (KTH) which revealed that about two out of 5 of all trauma circumstances representing 40 per cent have been street visitors casualties. 

This he stated places a toll on the well being sector notably emergency providers therefore the necessity for stakeholders to focus consideration on growing useful resource allocation to cut back street visitors deaths and accidents and save lives as a matter of urgency. 

He stated information from the Institute for Well being Metrics and Analysis (IHME)  on prime causes of deaths and incapacity in Ghana between 2009 and 2019 indicated that street injures stood at quantity eighth accounting for a 25 per cent enhance within the variety of deaths over the interval. 

“In Ghana, we’ve put in extra money inside two years to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic than we’ve executed for street security within the final twenty years,” he lamented. 

“The highest 9 causes of demise globally will be attributed to communicable and non-communicable akin to illnesses of ageing however street visitors accidents are the one explanation for demise that may be prevented and we have to view the difficulty from the general public well being perspective… Highway visitors accidents are the primary preventable accidents globally, and these disabilities once they happen are for all times,” he stated. 

He additionally used the chance to name on street security companies within the nation to play their half in enhancing security, notably amongst susceptible street customers.  

Mr Ebenezer Baidoo Highway Damage Surveillance Coordinator for AMA-BIGRS, in a presentation, stated the third Highway Security Annual Report launched by the AMA revealed that street visitors deaths in Accra per 100,000 rose from 4.9 in 2019 to six.3 in 2020 including that susceptible street customers akin to pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists made up 76 per cent of complete deaths in 2019 and 85 per cent in 2020. 

Mr Baidoo famous that the report singled out areas akin to Kwashieman Intersection, La Paz Intersection, Apenkwa Interchange to Dimple Roundabout, North Dzorwulu Intersection, Abeka Junction and Neoplan Intersection because the high-risk places in Accra. 

Mr Osei Kufuor, AMA-BIGRS Initiative Coordinator urged stakeholders to undertake the   Protected System strategy which sought to get rid of deadly & critical accidents for all street customers by recognizing that human error was not the one  major explanation for street crashes however the failure of the street system may additionally trigger street crashes .

Supply: 3news.com|Ghana