GJA Presidential hopeful, Gayheart Mensah
Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Presidential hopeful, Gayheart Mensah, has called on government, and public institutions not to jeopardize the lives of journalists by providing them with Urvan buses to join in a convoy while they use V8.
Mr Mensah, who was once a presidential correspondent for the Ghanaian Times under late President Jerry John Rawlings’ regime, said it was about time the Ghana Journalists Association engaged with event organizers especially ministers and state officials who provide them with vehicles that are not resilient to follow a convoy at the speed level of four-wheel vehicles on tours.
The GJA Presidential Candidate was speaking at the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Tema Regional Office and the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) Road Safety Campaign platform which seeks to use prominent persons to provide continuous education on the need to be safe on the roads and reduce road carnage.
The Tema GNA and MTTD Road Safety Project seek to create consistent and systematic weekly awareness advocacy on the need to be cautious on the road as a user, educate all road users of their respective responsibilities, and sensitize drivers especially of the tenets of road safety regulations, rules, and laws.
Mr Mensah recounted a situation at the Bono Region where a group of journalists were supposed to cover a tour event by a minister which he described as worrying saying, “all other persons were in a V8 but the journalists were in a Nissan Urvan and have to chase the dignitaries in a convoy.”
Touching the general impact of road crashes, Mr Mensah who recounted his experience in a crash he was involved in at Dawa in the Ningo-Prampram District, said, “it leads to trauma for both surviving victims and families”.
He added that the injuries victims sustained in road crashes could leave a scar on them for life.
Mr Mensah said road crashes if not checked could lead to loss of human capital as many people with great experiences that could contribute to the country’s economy had lost their lives through crashes.
He added that other effects of road crashes include its correlation with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country as according to him a research by the World Bank revealed that there was a correlation between reduction in road accidents and a country’s economic development as well as the increase and decrease of GDP.
Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency on his part said journalists in Ghana had suffered a lot in terms of road crashes during the discharge of their official duties and called for measures to be put in place by the leaders of the Association to curtail the situation.