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The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, on Friday warned vehicle users to obey traffic rules that sought to protect children, either as pedestrians or passengers in vehicles.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Alexander Kwaku Obeng, of the MTTD who gave the warning, said: “the road safety laws require drivers to ensure that children below the age of five sit at the rear seat of the vehicle and are properly strapped in with seat belts in the seat or in their carrying devices,”

 “Those aged from five to 18 also sit strapped, ideally in the rear or in front, especially on journeys where the vehicle will be travelling on highways and motorways at speeds of 80 and 100mph respectively.”

DSP Obeng who was speaking at a flag-raising ceremony to mark the seventh anniversary of the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) Day in Accra, warned that the police would resort to arrest drivers who breached the law, especially on children’s safety.

He stressed that it was the responsibility of adults to ensure that children are seated rightly and are strapped in order to protect them.

“With regards to children crossing the roads, it is expected that parents and adults should guide them, and motorists should also note that they go by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) found in the Highway Code, Provision 42 and 43,” he said.

DSP Obeng explained that the provisions were to help children to cross the roads at zebra and pelican crossings, since they could not interact with the vehicles at other parts of the road.

 “Drivers should slow down and be ready to stop for children to cross, as this would socialize them to know that those are the appropriate places to cross the road and not copy the bad behaviours of jay walking,” he said.

He stated that due to difficulties in the enforcement of such provisions, they were encouraged by the Department of Urban Roads to reinforce zebra crossing approaches with speed bumps and rumble strips as it was difficult to do speed checks in towns due to traffic situations.

 “There is a need to increase education that we have the right to the road, even in urban environments, to cross at speed crossings and we also have the right to interact with vehicles that are not speeding above limits of 50 in towns and below 30 at school and transit areas,” he concluded.

Miss Dzifa Tay, a 13-year old pupil of the Ridge Church School, who spoke on behalf of children, said they remained vulnerable to road traffic deaths with child deaths constituting 13 per cent of the national annual road traffic deaths, and 23 per cent of annual road traffic pedestrian deaths.

 “With this it is estimated that about 300 children between the ages of 0-15 sadly lose their lives through road traffic crashes, others also get seriously injured and some of them lose their education and future aspirations,” she added.

Miss Tay attributed this to failure on the part of drivers, parents and adults, schools, policy makers and city authorities, to play their parts in ensuring children’s safety on the roads and appealed to stakeholders and the NRSC to work hard to make roads safer for children.

She also appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to use his good offices as Chair of ECOWAS to influence other Presidents in Africa to help reduce child-related fatalities in West Africa.

Representatives of other stakeholders, including the National Ambulance Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Department of Feeder Roads and the National Drivers Academy all supported the call to ensure safe roads for children in Ghana,  and outlined some areas where their agencies were working to improve safety.

These include increase in the number of ambulance stations along trunk roads to be able to save more lives in road traffic crashes, improving training of drivers through the use of qualified instructors, and ensuring only road worthy cars are used on the roads.