Head of Regulations, Inspection and Compliance (RIC) of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Mr. Kwame Kodua Atuahene has disclosed that the new agenda of the NSRA under the Act 993 after it transitioned from a commission to authority is to reduce road crashes and the death and injuries associated with it.
Speaking on the primary objective of the institution, he revealed that when NRSA was a commission, it was charged with the responsibility to promote road safety, raise the risks associated with crashes and increase public awareness. However, the Act 993 specifies that NRSA reduces incidents of road crashes and its resultant death and injuries.
Also, beyond the commission’s traditional advocacy, this new agenda requires that the commission regulates safety standards, Mr Atuahene announced. He further mentioned that the NRSA under this mandate seeks to develop and coordinate road safety measures as well as its implementation and enforceability.
The head of RIC for further NRSA indicated that even though the level of public awareness has increased over the past 13 years from less than 40 per cent in 2006 to about 85 per cent in 2019, he considers it as insufficient because it does not give specific emphasis to reduction of road crashes.
“Beyond the driver and the vehicle, the road is an important element in the road safety conversation. A good road will not necessarily mean a road that is asphalted. It could be flat, straight but toxic because it does not have the necessary safety facilities. There are agencies of state that have the primary responsibility to keep our roads in good condition”.
Mr. Kwame Atuahene
Mr Kwame Atuahene stated that, “we have the opportunity to demand more responsibilities from our stakeholder institutions and be able to sanction those who fail to act in accordance with their own standards”.
After disclosing that the NRSA for the last 20 years has tried to bring out the 20 most accident-prone location across the country, Mr Kwame Atuahene distinguished that the National Road Safety Authority does not bear the responsibility to fix the road rather, they are required to collaborate with the road agencies to devise ways that will ensure road safety measures are implemented.
Moreover, as a regulatory body the law requires that they regulate the commercial transport sector, Mr. Kwame Atuahene indicated. He was of the view that, just as Ghana’s air space is being monitored from unlawful flight of aircrafts, the National Road Safety on the other hand will exert control on the local commercial transport system.
Mr Atuahene further explained that, this regulatory agenda will require transport service providers like State Transport Corporation (STC), GPRTU, Metro Mass, etc to all come under a new permitting regime similar to what they do at the assembly level. He further emphasized that, the new operating permit will be directed at these transport service producers and not the personal owners of the vehicles.
The head of RIC of NSRA revealed that, the regulatory act has been put before the Attorney General (AG) and he believes that when parliament reassembles in September it will be laid before them in order for parliament to well define the regulatory act and then passed into law.
According to him, when there are breaches of this act, the first step to take is to issue compliance notice and failure to act on it may attractive specific consequences.
