By Rachel Kakraba
Ghana is in the process of implementing laws on standards for crash helmets, hopefully by the end of next year. The move will go a long way in checking sub-standard crash helmets on the market. A protective helmet primarily protects against head injuries and brain damage resulting from crash impacts.
However, some crash helmets on the market lack the necessary safety requirements to protect riders in the event of a crash. Programme Officer of the Legal Resource Centre, Enock Jengre, made this known during a training workshop in Accra, for selected journalists on “Supporting Advocacy Interventions towards the Passage into Law of The Reviewed Road Traffic Act and the Development of Standards Motorcycle Helmets.”
The training sought to build the capacity of journalists and news editors to advocate the minimization of over-speeding on Ghanaian roads. They were educated on the law on motorcycle crash helmets and the need to use their media spaces to advocate for championing the development of motorcycle crash helmets fit for Ghana’s weather conditions. Ethical practices in road safety journalism and advocacy for enhanced road safety especially on speed management in minimizing road crashes, injuries and deaths were also key components of the training.
Speaking in an interview with GBCNEWS, Programme Officer of the Legal Resource Centre, Enock Jengre, indicated that although helmet use is mandatory for both rider and pillion rider, there are no helmet quality standards provided in the current Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2180), which makes the move of developing standards a welcoming one.
“As it stands now, Ghana has a law requiring people to wear motorcycle crash helmets. However, there’s no standards as to what specific criteria it should meet or the kind of standardized helmet that we should wear”.
Adding on Mr. Jengre said “we already have the working committee composed of the DVLA, the Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Safety Authority, and the Ghana Standards Authority with oversight from the Civil Society Organization”
He said providing regulations for crash helmets will ensure that only safe and standard crash helmets are allowed into the country to improve road safety.
Mr. Jengre, said the Ghana Standards Authority which is the national statutory body responsible for the development and promulgation of national standards is leading the development of the standards. Consideration for the development of the standard he said would include, weather conditions, types of helmet, economic considerations, existing laws and regulations and implementation methods.
Senior Manager Road Safety, Ghana, Environmental Health, Ing. Samuel Boamah Danquah, said road safety is a shared responsibility and urged all to be part.
“We want to encourage everyone that the necessary systems will be provided, but when we also find ourselves in the Road space we should be mindful. The motor vehicles should also be mindful of the other road user classes, such as the motorcyclist, the bicyclist and the pedestrian so that together we can all access the road space in a safe manner”
He emphasized that road crashes have severe economic impacts, making it crucial for everyone to work together to address the issue.
“Critically, if we look at how much we spend or how much the economy is affected, when we lose all these potential breadwinners, all these people who have strength and energy to contribute to the economy, and you compare, clearly we are losing a lot”
Communications Officer for the Bloomberg Initiatives for Global Road Safety Partnership, Mavis Obeng-Mensah, said the training which is a regular feature is designed to equip journalists with relevant skills in road safety reporting to curb carnage on the road.
“After journalism school and when you start working, a lot of the time you are not given that kind of technical know-how or technical knowledge even to sight a road safety story when you see one. So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to be having these trainings all the time to ensure that journalists are really equipped and we have a system that we are working with”
She said “What we want to achieve is that we want to wake up one day and hear that this year there were no crashes at all. Zero crashes”
Madam Obeng-Mensah urged journalists to shift their focus from merely reporting road carnage statistics to exploring the economic, social, and other impacts of such incidents to drive meaningful change.
The training is part of advocacy efforts to enforce safer road practices and reduce fatalities on Ghana’s roads.
According to the National Road Safety Authority, between January and June 2024, a total of 1, 237 deaths and 7, 561 injuries were recorded in road safety crashes in Ghana. Causes include wrongful overtaking, drivers’ failure to observe traffic signs and over speeding, etc.
Although Africa is the globe’s least motorized region, accounting for just 3% of the world’s vehicles. Yet it records the highest rate of road deaths.
In a WHO 2023 status report road crash deaths rose by 17% in Africa.
