Parliament has passed the National Road Safety Authority Bill, 2019 into law through a unanimous vote after its Third Reading.
The Minister for Transport, Mr. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, moved for the Third Reading of the Bill and was seconded by the Chairman for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport, Mr. Samuel Ayeh-Paye.
The newly passed Bill is to establish a National Road Safety Authority to develop and promote road safety in the country, to co-ordinate and regulate activities, procedures and standards related to road safety and to provide for related matters.
The National Road Safety Authority Bill is to provide an authority to the existing National Road Safety Commission in the discharge of its mandates.
The National Road Safety Commission was established by the National Road Safety Commission Act, 1999 (Act 567), to develop and promote road safety in the country.
As the lead public agency for road safety, the Commission provides requisite direction and collaborates with agencies and departments responsible for road design, driver licensing and recruitment, driver training programmes and road transport services, among others, in the interest of public safety.
This checks and prevents the poor road designs, ineffective driver training programmes, inefficient road transport services and unworthy vehicles that contribute to avoidable injuries and deaths on the roads.
Global best road safety practices show that, to achieve an improvement in road safety and a reduction in road crashes, fatalities and injuries, there must be an increased education and an effective implementation of road safety standards, procedures and policies by road safety related bodies or institutions.
Over the years, the Commission has put together a series of data led strategies that require several public or private institutions to implement existing road safety standards, procedures and policies intended to reduce deaths and injuries caused by road accidents.
However, under Act 567, the Commission lacked the mandate to demand compliance with these standards or their implementation in the interest of public safety.
The Bill therefore seeks to put in place the legal framework to mandate the Authority to implement standards, procedures and policies that would impact positively on road safety.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
