There's a real need to improve road safety in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, says Eric Nyame-Baafi, a road safety consultant for the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety in Ghana.

“A total of 650 people die on African roads every day. A child in Africa is twice as likely to die on the road as a child in any other part of the world.”

In this latest episode of Global Road Safety, Eric discusses Ghana’s initiatives to improve railway and road safety:

“The Government of Ghana is keen in rehabilitating existing railway lines in order for some of the traffic on the road to shift to rail and in doing that is going to reduce the number of accidents,”

And explains why public education is badly needed to improve driver behavior and road safety in Ghana:

“Even though drivers recognize the need for Road Safety Education, I think the education has to be geared towards changing the behavior patterns, I mean, in terms of speeding, and in terms of drunk driving.”

Improving road safety in Ghana would improve the lives of millions of people; and that means focusing on engineering, enforcement and education. To find out more, download and listen to Eric on this latest episode now.

On today’s podcast:

• How Ghana’s government is shifting traffic from road to rail
• Why Ghana plans to establish a transportation regulatory body
• Initiatives to improve driver skills
• Why improving road safety will improve the lives of millions

Every year in Pakistan around 30,000 people die in road accidents. Why, in the world’s fifth largest country, would they have such a high rate of road safety incidents?

“If we discuss the major road safety issues in Pakistan, the problem is unfortunately, still we do not have any road safety lead agency in Pakistan.”

Dr Muhammed Navid Tahir is incredibly passionate about making Pakistan's roads safer. As an assistant professor of Public Health at the University of Punjab, he's also done work drafting Pakistan's national road safety policy guidelines, with a special focus on motorcycle safety, pedestrian safety, and the five pillars of road safety.

Dr Tahir truly faces an uphill struggle to improve road safety in Pakistan. Not only do drivers largely not follow the rules of the road, but Pakistan also doesn’t identify this lack of road safety as a public health issue, therefore there is no political support to make improvements. Plus, less than 10% of motorcyclists wear a helmet.

“The lack of awareness is a big issue. And it's very difficult to actually modify the behavior and train the people in this area, because people actually are not very educated about road safety, and they are mostly impatient on the road.”

To find out more about the work Dr Tahir is doing to help keep Pakistan’s roads safer, download and listen today.

On today’s podcast:

• The Road Safety Act
• 70% of Pakistan’s road traffic are motorbikes
• Introducing the vehicle inspection system
• Difficulty of educating the population
• Less than 10% of motorcyclists wear helmets

Links:

• Global Road Safety Facility

Every day, roughly 100 people in the United States are killed in road crashes. Globally, that number is approximately Ten to 15% of those deaths are directly attributable to distracted driving.

Driving distracted increases the chances of a motor vehicle crash by at least 23 times. Statistically, distracted driving is as dangerous as driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol.

So, what is being done to tackle distracted driving?

In this latest episode of Global Road Safety, we’re joined by two special guests: Paul Ripley, founder of Distraction 999 and the 2020 winner of the Prince Michael of Kent Special Road Safety Award:

“A lack of skill is the problem. Youngsters’ attitude is 25% of the safety equation, but it's never spoken about, it's never mentioned. So this is why I've gone into the attitudinal stuff and studied that for 28 years. This is the golden nugget of driver safety — it's a mindset, not necessarily a skill set.” Paul Ripley

Ted Chen, entrepreneur, and co-founder of LifeSaver Mobile, a company offering a fleet safety solution focused on preventing distracted driving and speeding shares his thoughts on distracted driving.

“Science tells us that our brains are programmed by this chemical called dopamine to be addicted to the smartphone. Smartphones have provided us with a virtually unlimited supply of social stimuli, both positive and negative.” Ted Chen

To find out how we can all tackle distracted driving and keep our roads safer, download and listen today.

On today’s podcast:

• The lack of skill in driving
• A lackadaisical attitude towards safety
• The effect of the pandemic on the quality of driving
• How phone usage increases the risk of a crash by 23%

Links:

• https://lifesaver-app.com/
• www.distraction999.com