The Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) has held a day’s consultative engagement under the TRANS-SAFE Transforming Road Safety in Africa Project.
AAMUSTED is the only Ghanaian Institution among the International Consortium for the four-year project funded by the European Union (EU) Framework Programme Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101069525). The project will demonstrate and validate road safety solutions with high-level scalability and replicability to promote a radical transformation toward road safety improvement in Africa.
Nearly 100 technocrats and administrators from Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Kumasi Area, representatives from the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) Department of Urban Roads, Ghana Police Service (GPS), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ghana Ambulance Service (GAS), Transport Unions, among others, attended the December 19, 2023, meeting.
The Pro Vice-Chancellor of AAMUSTED, Prof. Isaac Boateng, leader of the AAMUSTED Team on the Consortium, gave a detailed overview of the project. A Senior Lecturer of AAMUSTED and Team Member, Dr. Albert Awopone, supported him in the presentation.
They also highlighted some specific interventions that AAMUSTED had proposed to demonstrate as a pilot in the Greater Kumasi Area as part of the project. They included post-license training for private commercial (Trotro) drivers in Ghana, improving road safety research, teaching, and professional training, and developing smart traffic control systems.
They further indicated the application of self-explaining road design methodology interventions such as speed bumps, tabletop crossing, and rumble strips in five (5) locations to reduce speed in places where speed is defined as an issue by road user mapping and police data and strengthen the capacity of Local Emergency Care Professionals and individuals in post-crash care – train trainers in Stop the Bleed (STB) and Basic Emergency Care (BEC) and provide them with the tools to advocate for change that will improve post-crash care.
The other members of the AAMUSTED Team on the project are the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Frederick Kwaku Sarfo; and two other Senior Lecturers, Dr. Kwabena Offeh Gyimah and Mr. Kingsley Agyapong.
Participants also discussed the road safety challenges in Kumasi and advocated collaboration among relevant stakeholders towards finding lasting solutions to the country’s road challenges. They hoped that the TRANS-SAFE Project would be a platform to develop a holistic road map.
The Mayor of Kumasi, Mr. Samuel Pyne, who graced the meeting, commended AAMUSTED for the initiative. He was optimistic that the road safety situation in the Kumasi Metropolis would improve by the time the project ends within the next four years. Hence, he appealed to the stakeholders to be committed and work hard on the project to achieve optimal results.
