Over 300 children die in road crashes annually – NRSA

The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) is promoting the use of child restraint systems in vehicles to safeguard them in case of crashes on the road.

This initiative stems from the sobering statistic that between 200 and 300 children lose their lives annually due to road crashes.

This call to action was made during an advocacy workshop organized in partnership with the Law and Development Associates (LADA) institute in Accra.

Addressing the media, David Adonteng, the Acting Director-General of NRSA, said that some legal regulations have yet to be enforced due to inadequate resources and loopholes in the enforcement of traffic regulations.

“We have the Road Traffic Act 683, and we also have the Road Traffic Regulations which is the LI 2180 and in the past, we have implemented some of the provisions but not all because it takes time to harness the necessary resources and the technical know-how and skills to be able to implement all provisions. There is one that they have identified related to child restraints and seat belts and I think child restraints in particular have been absent from our laws and regulations.”

“I am not surprised and if you look at the statistics, we are seeing some negative consequences. Between 200 and 300 children die on our roads annually as a result of not using seat belts or child restraints. This is a significant problem that we need to address.”