The Director of Regulation, Inspection, and Compliance at the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Kwame Atuahene, has assured that a thorough audit will be conducted to address recurring issues on the country’s roads.

This decision follows JoyNews’ Emefa Apawu’s recent visit to major roads in the city centre, where she observed numerous issues such as faulty traffic lights, lack of street lighting, and missing road markings.

These deficiencies pose a risk for individuals unfamiliar with these roads, increasing the likelihood of accidents.

Additionally, data from the NRSA indicated that there were 6,653 road crashes from January to June 2024. In 2021, there were reports of 75 non-functional traffic signals across the country.

In an interview on JoyNews’ ‘The Probe’ on Sunday, August 4, Mr Atuahene explained that the NRSA actively engages with relevant stakeholders to find solutions to these issues.

He highlighted a previous instance where the NRSA conducted an audit of traffic lights, giving the Urban Roads Department an ultimatum to report back on the interventions they had implemented.

“The last time we did an audit of the traffic lights, we gave Urban Roads some 60 days to come back to us, which they did, reporting on the interventions they had taken and the fact that the outstanding matters had been awarded for contracts.

"To be honest, we saw some improvement at the time, but we are beginning to receive these complaints again,” he said.

The upcoming audit aims to identify the current state of road issues, allowing the NRSA to engage further with the Urban Roads Department and other relevant agencies.

“We intend to conduct some audits just to confirm where issues are so that we can engage them [Urban Roads] further,” Mr Atuahene added.

He acknowledged the complexity of addressing all road infractions simultaneously but stated the NRSA’s commitment to collaborating with frontline agencies to prioritize and tackle the most pressing issues.