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Mr. Emmanuel T. K. Narh, Trainer for Technician Engineers at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Ghana, has stressed the effective adoption of the Concentration, Observation, Anticipation, and Tolerance (COAT) approach to help prevent road crashes.

He said the adoption and religious application of COAT by road users would help prevent the loss of life and property through road accidents, especially in this season of Yuletide.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr. Narh who doubles as the Western Regional Head of DVLA, expressed worry that road crashes were relatively frequent the during “rush period” at Christmas, because of its climax of intense movement of vehicles and people which added to the already existing insanity on the road.

He, therefore, charged drivers, operators, riders and pedestrians, to cultivate the habit of full concentration when plying and using the road.

The DVLA Trainer advised road users to avoid distractions, by paying particular attention to the happenings on the road, since that would quickly alert them on the approach of any moving and immovable hazards to evade any crash.

He encouraged drivers and pedestrians to be very observant in the usage of the road, advising that they should fix their eyes and pay maximum attention to the happenings on the road, before taking any action.

Drivers, operators and riders, he said, must conduct critical study of their surroundings before and during the movement of vehicles, to enable them recognize early any form of hazard to prevent road accidents.

He said road users must pay attention to any specifics on the road, particularly road traffic regulations, like the road signs and markings, to know what to do at a particular moment on the road.

Mr. Narh noted that tolerance, a virtue that prevents any form of unfortunate incidents in any field of endeavour, applied to the driving field as well.

He therefore urged road users to exhibit a higher level of patience towards one another.

'Each driver must tolerate the manouvres of other oncoming vehicles, movement of pedestrians and vice versa to create some level of sanity on the roads,' he said.

“The Yuletide is an event to celebrate lives and not deaths, let us unite to have a peaceful celebration devoid of casualties because if a Surgeon causes an error during surgery, he/she kills one person but if a driver commits a blunder on the road, he wastes the lives of hundreds of people,” Mr. Narh advised.

“Ensuring road safety is a collective responsibility,” he pointed out.