By Arret Jatta
The National Road Authority (NRA) has launched an awareness-raising program on road safety at the BertilHarding Highway to control the high rate of road accidents occurring on the highway with the theme: Arrive Safe.
The launch took place at Coco Ocean in Bijilo on Thursday 30th May.
Dr. Momodou Gassama, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Africa has one percent of the world featuring vehicles but they contribute 13 percent to road traffic crashes which he described as serious.
“There is a problem in Africa when other continents within ten years are declining Africa road accident is going up. We have a problem, we need to really reflect on this and critically look at this issue”, he lamented.
According to him, “road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people within five and twenty-nine years”.
He highlighted that speeding is one of the major factors that cause accidents on the road.
Lamin King Colley from the Gambia Police Force explained that, based on the statistics of accidents in this country, people’s attitude is responsible.
“For Gambians, road accidents are based on our attitude, we should not say it’s God’s will, it is our will. We are the ones driving, we are the ones giving licenses to people who cannot drive, we are the ones driving on bad roads so this has nothing to do with the will of God”, he stressed.
He noted that this initiative is timely, especially with the recent rampant road accidents.
“If you have a vehicle, try to know the regulations, try to know the causes of accidents, and try to know how to prevent the accident,” he stated.
On the other hand, he said “One factor that causes accidents on the road is the laws that are there but not powerful, our laws are outdated. It is still the 1948 laws that we are using.”
The Director of the National Road Authority (NRA), Ousman Sanyang made a presentation on road safety, stating that “Safety is a multi-dimensional issue, it cuts across various sectors. So it’s important that we acknowledge the help and support of different stakeholders in this,” he stated.