The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has expressed concern over the increased spate of accidents on the country's highways resulting in injuries and loss of lives. To address the situation, he said, the government had drawn up a plan to improve roads across the country and urged transport operators to train their drivers on defensive driving and anticipation. Mr Mahama expressed the concern when he inaugurated 50 VDL Joncheere Auto Transmission intra-city buses for the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Limited at the Independence Square in Accra yesterday. The 50 new buses are part of a consignment of 150 buses being procured by the government for the MMT at a cost of $10 million. Fifty additional buses are expected by the end of the year. The purchase of the buses followed the approval of $8.2 million by parliament in July 2011 for that purpose. The inauguration of the 50 buses brings MMT's fleet to 750 and the company is expected to increase its fleet to more than 1,000 by the end of the year So far, it operates on 260 routes and in all the 10 regional capitals. Figures from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) indicate that on average, 11,400 road traffic accidents are recorded annually, resulting in 14,000 injuries and 1,800 deaths. The Vice-President said the casualty figures on road accidents were too high, saying, "We cannot afford as a nation to continue to lose our valuable human resource at such rate." Therefore, he said, the government was embarking on a crash programme to improve roads across the country but expressed worry that whenever the roads were improved, accident rates escalated. "When the roads are bad, we all feel uncomfortable but we don't die. We go safely from point 'A' to point 'B' because the driver can't speed. As soon as government improves the road and puts asphalt on it, accidents start to occur, slaughtering people here and there," he said. Mr Mahama called for collaborative efforts among the NRSC, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), transport operators and other stake-holders to reduce the carnage on our roads". On the MMT, the Vice-President said there had been a few fatal accidents involving MMT buses and asked the management and staff of the company to be mindful of safety on the roads. He urged the staff of MMT to keep good faith with the company and asked the management to consider issuing prepaid tickets and allow the conductors to only inspect the tickets, instead of taking cash. He gave an assurance that the government, which has 45 per cent shares in the MMT, would continue to support the company to provide efficient, reliable, safe and affordable transportation across the country. He thanked the German, Dutch and Belgian governments for supporting the acquisition of buses for the MMT. The Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said with an ongoing programme to acquire additional buses, "all districts will be covered to bring the total coverage to over 300 routes". He said in fulfilment of that aspiration, it had been projected that the company's bus fleet should be increased from 700 to over 1,300 buses by the end of the year and indicated that the government had undertaken all measures to achieve that target. The acting Managing Director of the MMT, Mr Maxwell Awuku, gave an assurance that the company would continue to offer reliable, safe and affordable mass transportation services to the people. He said the company was introducing a speed limit programme to install speed limit devices on the buses to monitor the speed and consequently reduce accidents. A member of the Council of State, Alhaji Asoma Banda, who chaired the function, asked the management of the MMT to introduce an awards scheme to reward drivers with record of safe driving to encourage safe driving among the drivers.