The Attorney-General’s Department must take the blame for high accident rate on the country’s roads, according to Chief Executive of a road safety campaign group.
Richard Karikari says when case files of fatal accidents are sent to the A-G’s Department for advice, they sit on the shelves for two to three years.
According to him, the menace of road accidents will not reduce if the trend continues.
Mr Karikari, who heads Oli Best Road Safety Organisation, was speaking at a stakeholder’s forum in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.
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The forum was organised under the theme “Operation Save the Pedestrian; Reduce Pedestrian knock-downs by 2020.”
Statistics from the National Road Safety Department indicate that last year, 652 People died in road accidents in the Ashanti Region, up from 611 in 2016.
Mr Karikari says checks by his organisation reveal road indiscipline increased when Police Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate personnel were ordered off the roads.
He said the increase in road carnage has come about because the current government and the previous ones have not been committed to rooting out the menace.
Manhyia Divisional Police Commander, ACP Kwaku Boah, however, blames drug abuse and other acts of lawlessness for the increasing rate of accidents.
He says government now spends a chunk of its resources on roads accidents.
According to him, road accidents now kill more than malaria.
He has vowed to deal drastically with tricycle drivers operating at the blind side of the law.
ACP Kwaku Buah advised pedestrians to wear reflective clothing at night to prevent being run over.
