The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) with support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) has given the green light for the commencement of road safety enhancement works at LAPAZ intersection.

The move forms part of ongoing efforts by the AMA, and it's stakeholders to reduce pedestrian fatalities in the Accra Metropolitan area.

The enhancement works includes increasing the pedestrian signal timing (crossing times)to increase the number of  pedestrian  crossing the entire 14 lanes  without waiting in the middle, and prevent pedestrians from disobeying  the signal, as well as lowering of kerbs where pedestrians cross the roads to ensure unimpeded and safe pedestrian flow including  the physically disabled.

The safety works will also see the remarking of crossings and other pavement markings (pedestrian crossing, strips, centre line marking etc.) to ensure general safety at the junction, and encourage pedestrians to cross at designated crossing locations.

According to the first AMA Road Safety Report, analyzing data from 2011 to 2015, 70℅ of road fatalities recorded in the Metropolis occurred on the N1 road representing 16% of all fatalities.

Hon. Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Mayor of Accra, in   his address, on Wednesday July 11th 2018, at a ceremony to commence the enhancement works noted that the project has become necessary due to statistics showing that the Lapaz intersection has the highest record of road crashes in the whole of Accra.

He said the project which was part of the pedestrian action plan launched by the assembly in December last year, would also ensure easy mobility of pedestrians on that road.

"It is the Assembly's vision, to enhance   urban mobility since it is key to the life of the city, we also want to ensure that people are able to move freely to their work places, houses and various destinations. This will help promote Socio- Economic development within the City," he said.

He pointed out that to reduce the high rate of fatalities and serious injuries, safety inspections  carried out by AMA-BIGRS,  reviewed six high-frequency crash locations on the N1, including the La Paz intersection.

The Mayor said the inspection report proposed a number of safety interventions to enhance pedestrian safety as a result of the high pedestrian volume operating within the intersection catchment area.

He tasked the newly  CREATED Okaikoi Municipal Assembly to ensure that the intersection was free from hawking and any kind of trading activities to eliminated all hindrances posed to pedestrians on the road.

Mohammed Adjei Sowah, assured that the AMA would continue to work with the National Road Safety Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies and all partners under this initiative as well the road agencies to deploy proven solutions to save lives and improve environments where people live, work and play.

Madam Sylviane Ratte, Deputy Director, Global Road Safety Initiative, Vital Strategies in remark stated that, the AMA-BIGRS Lapaz intervention forms part of the five-year initiative supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies with four components: safer streets and mobility, enforcement, strategic communication, and surveillance.

She thanked the AMA and all stakeholders involved in this initiative for their commitment.               

 Mr. Charles Oduro Kwarteng a representative from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) said the AMA-BIGRS had helped in the reduction of child fatality from 23% to 19% according records from the commission.

He pledged the commission's continuous support to intensify road safety campaign with focus on pedestrian safety, safe crossing points as well as respect for traffic signals.

The Engineer for the Project Mr. Nicholas Brown, said that his team had carried out an intensive inspection of the area and identified solutions to reduce the fatalities, adding that, the project would be completed within a month.