SURVEY BEGINS ON SAFETY OF CHILDREN (PAGE 23, JULY 1)

A 13-month survey to find out the number of children killed while attempting to cross some selected highways as pedestrians in Accra and its environs has started in Nima and Ashaiman.
The outcome of the survey will help inform policy makers and authorities of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) on measures to put in place to control the carnage on the roads in built-up areas in the city.
Mr Jeffrey Witte, Executive Director of Amend.Org, one of the organisations undertaking the exercise, announced this at a press conference in Accra.
The other partner of the survey is Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies based in Geneva.
Mr Witte said the survey would also find out whether the current statistics of four children killed every day attempting to cross roads in Accra and its environs was accurate.
He said a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in New York revealed that road traffic accidents were a more leading cause of death, especially in Africa, than HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
The Executive Director of Amend.Org said the objective of the organisation was to advocate improvement in road infrastructure and change in attitude to save thousands of lives, especially of children, lost through road crashes which could be prevented.
Mr Kingsley Ohene Amoako, Programme Manager of Amend.Org, said preliminary results of an ongoing study of major tarred roads close to primary schools in parts of Accra showed worrying events.
He said some of the pedestrian crossings at the 42 streets close to 132 public and private primary schools were faded, while some had no pedestrian crossing, putting the lives of school children in jeopardy.
Mr Amoako said to make matters worse, some of the streets had been invaded by hawkers who obstruct pedestrian movement on the pavements.
He said at some avenues one could count 2,870 vehicles per hour between 6.45 and 7.45a.m. and over 1,000 pedestrians, who included schoolchildren, making their way to school.
He noted that this hustle and bustle sometimes resulted in the loss of lives of pedestrians, especially schoolchildren, because of the absence of speed calming devices such as speed humps and rumble strips on roads near schools.
Mr Amoako, therefore, appealed to the Departments of Urban Roads and the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) to provide more pedestrian crossing facilities near schools.
The Technical Director of Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) of Ghana, Mr Cecil Garbrah, said the GRSP was forging partnerships with all the key groups in society who had vested interest in improving road safety to reduce the carnage on the roads, especially those involving pedestrians.