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Toyota Director delivering
a speech on road safety. |
TOYOTA Ghana Limited has initiated a road safety campaign to
help reduce road accidents and fatalities on the western corridor.
Dubbed “The Road Safety Memorials”, the campaign
involves the mounting of warning signposts along the Mallam-Winneba
stretch of the corridor, which has been identified as one of the
black spots in terms of road accidents in the country.
Areas targeted for the intervention include Tetegu, Budumburam,
Awutu, Akoti Junction and Okyereko, which have witnessed some
of the most tragic accidents in the country in recent times. The
signposts dotted along the stretch carry simple and visible road
safety messages to caution drivers and pedestrians on the need
to be extra careful so as to avoid accidents.
The concept, which is said to have proved successful in advanced
countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America,
was designed on behalf of Toyota by Taurus Emporium Company Limited,
a Transportation Engineering firm.
According to officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit
(MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Private Road Transport
Union (GPRTU), as well as some road users, the campaign is already
having a positive impact, two weeks after the signposts were mounted.
Drivers are reported to be slowing down on reaching the areas
that the signposts have been mounted.
Launching the campaign in Accra, the Managing Director of Toyota
Ghana Limited, Mr. Masato Kimata, expressed the hope that the
campaign would make road users more conscious of maintaining their
vehicles properly, use genuine spare parts and observe road traffic
regulations in order to save lives. He said the road safety campaign
formed part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the company
and underlined its commitment to do more.
An official of Taurus Emporium Company Limited, Mr. Michael Bortsie,
said the initiative was being implemented on a pilot basis and,
based on its success, it would be replicated in other parts of
the country.
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