A National Transport Policy Bill aimed at creating a healthy work environment and sanity in the road transport sector is to be put before Parliament.
The bill aims at guiding operators and other stakeholders in the transport sector to help reduce the spate of road traffic accidents.
The Co-ordinating Secretary of the Federation of Transport Unions, Mr E. A. Mensah, announced this at the launch of the 2008 International Road Transport Action Week Campaign in Accra on Tuesday.
He said when the bill was passed, it would provide social partners in the road transport industry with much information and direction to ensure safe, clean and affordable transport for sustainable development.
The Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Road Safety Commission, Mr David Osafo Adonteng, said the rate at which people died through road accidents in the country was alarming.
He said 2,043 people lost their lives through road accidents last year, while 1,856 died as a result of road accidents in 2006.
Mr Adonteng said despite the massive investment to bring the country’s roads into good order, vehicles continued to be involved in more road accidents.
He said that could be attributed to the rise in vehicular population which, a few years back, was 500,000 but which had jumped to nearly one million.
He said the number of vehicles on the country’s roads had been projected to reach over 1.2 million by 2010.
The Secretary General of Trades Union Congress, Mr Kofi Asamoah, said some road accidents could be prevented to save lives.
He appealed to road transport unions to work hard at organising all floating drivers to standardise their working conditions.
He explained that that would prevent them from engaging in reckless practices for selfish gains which could usually cause the death of innocent passengers and pedestrians.
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