AMEND Ghana installs speed limit signs for schools in Accra

Amend Ghana with the support of FIA foundation and Puma Energy Foundation has mounted a 30KM/H speed limit signs for nine basic schools within Accra.

The NGO took it upon themselves to educate pupil whom are regular users of the Nii Asere Ayitey Road on how to cross roads safely.

 The Kaneshie Cluster of Schools and Reverend Thomas Clegg Methodist School benefited from Amends initiative.

The country manager of Amend Ghana, Mrs. Amma Oduro-Dankwah said her concerns are with the rate at which children below five years and above are involve in car crashes on these minor roads.

According to her if a vehicle is at a vehicle speed of 40km/h, there is a 70 per cent chance of pedestrian survival, thus 30 per cent chance of death, while at 50 km/h, the chance of survival reduces to only 15 per cent with 85 per cent chance of death.

According to the Ghana Road Traffic Regulations (L.I.2180), "Except otherwise indicated by the Road Authority, a person driving a motor vehicle shall not exceed a maximum permissible speed limit of thirty kilometres per hour on a road within a school".

The installation of road signs, she said, would serve as a reminder to drivers to slow down as they approached the school zones.

Mrs. Oduro said it was as a result of road accidents involving school children that Amend, since 2016, had been working to reduce speeds and provide safe pedestrian infrastructure such as footpaths, zebra crossings, speed humps, and road signs around high-risk basic schools in Accra.

Amend, she said, was also advocating for the installation of 30km/h speed limit signs around schools throughout the country.

For his part, the Coordinator of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Roads Safety (BIGRS), and a Representative of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mr. Osei Kufuor, said they had gathered data on road crashes in Accra as well as accident prone areas to take safety measures to control them.

He said it was part of the measures to reduce pedestrian accidents that the AMA introduced the Pedestrian Road Safety Action Plan in 2017 to protect pedestrians from crashes.

He went on to say that the AMA was introducing its engineers to best practices of building roads to make pedestrians, especially Persons with Disability, safe on the roads.

Mr. Kufuor disclosed that the Assembly was embarking on preparing a Speed Management Plan, this year, because it had identified how speeding caused more than half of the deaths recorded on roads.

Apart from speeding, he said they were going to look at controlling drink driving, driving without seatbelts and riding motors without helmets.