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Government has announced a three-tier approach, including the introduction of spot fines by the Police and provision of funds, in a new measure to stem the growing tide of road accidents in the country.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by an executive order has also approved an additional GHC6.5million from the Road Fund to be released to the National Road Safety Commission to scale up its road safety public education.

Also, the Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads and Department of Feeder Roads are to be given at least GHC335 million yearly to provide signage and road markings on roads that are over three years old.

A statement signed by Deputy Information Minister Curtis Perry Kwabla Okudzeto said the president has ordered for strict enforcement of road traffic laws in the country by the Police.

In line with that, the Motor, Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police has been given the green light to introduce spot fines by automation of its operations.

It is also to partner with private towing companies and the Nationwide Traffic Management and Enforcement Limited to vigorously enforce the country’s road regulations.

Towing trucks and recovery vehicles of the Road Safety Management Services Limited that cannot be used because the project has been withdrawn
These measures, the statement said, were contained in the report of a three-man Committee formed by the President to come up with an action plan to curb the road accident menace.

The statement said the president Nana Akufo-Addo has endorsed the report and ordered for its immediate implementation.

Rising road accidents

Road accidents have been on the rise in the country recently. In 2017, a total of 2,076 people were killed in road accidents across the country.

Statistics from the National Road Safety Commission showed 12,843 road accidents were recorded for the year, which was a 2.66 per cent increase from 2016.

As of January 2018 180 people had lost their lives through road accidents. The figure according to officials, was an increase of 14,3 per cent from the same period last year.

A total of 18 people died in a road accident on Sunday dawn when two vehicles crashed head on the Yapei-Buipe stretch of the Tamale-Kumasi Highways.