Pedestrian  knockdowns  continue to attract the attention  of road safety managers as number of persons  injured rose  from  100  in 2020 to 135  in 2021  in the Western Region, National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) reports from January to September this year revealed.

Pedestrians  killed, however,  reduced  from 42 to 32, a 23.8 percent decrease. But,  the  total number  of  reported cases  on  pedestrian knockdowns rose from 130 to 167, during  the period.

The Western Regional Manager of NRSA, Nana Akua Ansaah,told  The Spectator  recently.

She  explained  that  walkways were  for  use by pedestrians and    but  observed  that  in   most communities  in the region, they had become car parks.

This , Nana Ansaah  added, was a  headache  creating injuries and deaths among pedestrians  on theroads.

Again, she  told The Spectator  that slabs removed during clean-ups were not  restored and remained  uncovered for days, forcing  pedestrians to enter the road  to  compete   with vehicles for space.

Nana Ansaah  stressed : “Humans  are vulnerable and  our bones cannot be compared with metals on vehicles and any collision,  pedestrians die; it’s a worry. We plead with road contractors and our engineers, to create  pedestrian lay- bys to forestall the injuries and  deaths.

“We need to prevent people from dying when  using the road.The pedestrian walkways also promote healthy lifestyles as people  used them  for  exercises.”

She again indicated that males killed during the period below age 18 reduced from 10 to four while males above 18 killed rose from 61 to 71, an  increase of +16.4 percent while  females above 18, who died,  also rose from four to  nine.

Nana Ansaah told the Spectator  that  persons killed in the commercial vehicle  category rose from 23 to 36 while those  injured reduced  from 287 to 188, with taxis topping with an increase  from  137 to 158.

Trycycles cases  also  rose from 99 to 142  during the period,saying “it’s a worry, we are  losing national  human resources, people  in  productive age bracket are  dying.”

The road safety manager advocated that parents and  the society should encourage females to join the road transport business  just as some haulage companies had started because, statistics showed  that, females   had the patience  and discipline to maintain  high safety standards.

Nana Ansaah said: “The men claim they have the experience but if you have the experience and people continue to die on our roads, then it means you need to improve upon   your driving skills. We have to make our roads safe for all users.”

From Clement Adzei Boye, Takoradi