Avoid Wrong Overtaking - NRSC

Mr Alexander Ayattah, Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), has appealed to road users, especially motorcycle riders, to desist from overtaking moving vehicles at the right hand side of the road. He said such actions contravened the nation�s road safety regulations. He was speaking at the Sacred Heart Parish of the Catholic Church in Kalpohin, in the Sanarugu sub Metropolitan Assembly at the weekend as part of an educational campaign of the NRSC. Mr Ayattah said the road regulations only permitted vehicles and motorcycles to overtake a moving vehicle on the left side and at where there were broken lines only. �When overtaking a vehicle make sure that there are broken lines, it should be at the left hand side and must also ensure that the road is clear ahead before you move,� he said. Mr Ayattah expressed worry about the increasing cases of road casualties in the Northern Region and called on all stakeholders to be up and doing to reduce the fatalities. �This is because casualty figures have increased. In the first half of last year 35 people died and this has gone up to 72 in the first half of 2013,� he said. Mr Ayattah said 113 persons were severely injured in the same period in 2012 while cases reported in 2013 were 310, adding that, most of the injured involved were on motorcycles. Mr Ayattah appealed to security personnel to play their roles to ensure that the public adhered to road safety regulations. �Our security personnel must be ambassadors of road regulations by wearing crash helmets anytime they are on motorbikes, putting on seat belts when driving and obeying road signs so that other road users will emulate you,� he said. He urged religious leaders to use their pulpits to educate the people on road safety because if such messages become a priority in their sermons road carnage would be reduced.