The Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC), has directed police in the region to ensure that no broken down vehicle remains on any of their roads for more than 24 hours.

Regional Minister and Chairman of REGSEC, Alhaji Salifu Saeed, says this directive takes immediate effect and all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the region are to enforce this in their respective areas.

He says a number of lives have been lost in the region after their vehicles crashed into broken-down ones.

“People whose vehicles gets to breakdown on the roads, they should give them 24hours, not 48hours, [to] remove the vehicles from the main roads because when they leave them [on the roads] other vehicles run into them and those are the accidents that when they occur we hear 20 to 30 people die on the spot,” he stated.

Alhaji Saeed made the statement in an interview JoyNews’ Seth Kwame Boateng as part of the #ArriveAlive campaign initiated by JoyNews, a member of The Multimedia Group Limited.

According to him, the directive to the police forms one of many other interventions the REGSEC has lined up in support of the campaign.

“We want everybody travelling from their point of origin to the point of destination start the journey safely and arrive safely…We support the #ArriveAlive initiative and everybody should see it as a responsibility upon themselves,” the Minister added.

Crashes in Northern Region

The Northern region ranks eighth in all recorded road crash cases in the country (2.9 percent of national crashes).

Also, the majority of crashes in the region (75 percent) occur on rural roads.

Vehicle running off roads and pedestrian hits constitute the main types of collisions. Additionally, pedestrians, motorcyclists and minibus occupants are the main victims of road traffic fatalities in the region.

In 2019, the region recorded a total of 132 road accident deaths, the Region's Police Commander, DCOP Timothy Yoosa Bonga disclosed.

The Commander noted that in 2018 accidents recorded were 164 when the Savannah and North East regions were part of the Northern region.

” These are able person that would have contributed to the development of this nation but they have gone before their time,” he said.

#ArriveAlive

Joy News’ #ArriveAlive campaign is a road safety campaign that aims to find solutions on how to make roads in Ghana safe for all users with a continued discourse on why there are frequent road accidents occurring across the country.

The campaign comes after a major crash that occurred on the Cape Coast – Takoradi Highway on January 14, 2020, that claimed the lives of 35 travellers, shocking the nation.