By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
In an effort to ensuring that the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Road Safety which ends in 2020 is achieved, the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) is set to administer road safety education to 5,000 primary schools in the country.
The Executive Director of SLRSA, Dr. Sarah Finda Bendu, made the disclosure recently during the official commissioning of the license office in Kabala town, where she also said that her institution is currently embarking on road safety education in 10 primary schools in the country’s capital-Freetown.
Dr. Bendu, who expressed her disappointment over the failure of Kabala authorities to install caution signs in places where schools were being held, said global statistics have shown that over 80,000 school going children have been involved in road accident annually when they go to and from their various schools. She said it is important that road signed are posted to inform drivers to be careful.
She said road signs notifying in-coming vehicle drivers to slow down as a result of schools in a particular area must be installed at all schools that are built closer to trunk or feeder roads, stressing that, “this is one of the safety measures SLRSA’s put in place for our school going children.”
“Our children are the future of this country, thus we should ensure that they are safe when using the road. In our primary school days, we were taught what to do when crossing the road and even how to use the zebra sign,” she said.
According to her, SLRSA wants to ‘catch-them-young’ so that when they grow up road safety education would not depart from them.
Dr. Bendu said because they have a mandate, which includes engineering, education and enforcement (EEE), she had instructed SLRSA’s Road Safety Corps to go to schools in order to teach the children about road safety.
“We are currently doing free road checks in order to detect punctured tyres, expired registration and licenses, driving without wheel pullers, and we warn defaulters to make the necessary amendments. At the moment, we are not issuing tickets to them as a means of punishment but we are firstly educating them to comply with the rules and regulations of driving on the road of Sierra Leone,” she said.
She said SLRSA does not want to lose any more lives on the road as a result of road accident, and that is why we are doing everything humanly possible to do road safety education to all road users.
She encouraged drivers to take the necessary precautions on the road especially during and after the festive periods.
