The manager in charge of Planning and Education at the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), May Obiri Yeboah has appealed to religious leaders to help ensure an accident-free Christmas and New Year. She said when road safety education and sensitisation is taken to churches and mosques, it will be very effective since most people in Ghana have great respect for their religious and opinion leaders. “We all know that traditional and religious leaders are respected a lot and when they talk, people listen so if we get them to support us and talk to their people, it will help us,” she explained. Speaking on Xfm’s ‘the Big Bite’ morning show on Tuesday Mrs. Yeboah noted that in as much as religious leaders are interested in winning souls for God, they should also help protect those souls from fatal road accidents. She said the commission’s extensive safety and educational efforts to reduce accidents during the festive season started in November with an awards scheme to honor drivers and transport service providers who are doing well in preventing road accidents. The Association of Passengers, a union formed to promote the interests of commuters and educate them as well as drivers’ unions, has also been included in the exercise to ensure wider coverage in road safety efforts, she added. Ghana is still struggling with the issue of road carnages especially during festive seasons and statistics from the NRSC indicates that almost one thousand five hundred (1,500) lives have been lost so far in 2011 while others have been seriously injured, a situation road experts say does not bode well for human capital and productivity in the country.