Paper Title
Assessing the Effectiveness of Ghana Safety Policy in Addressing Road Accidents

Abstract
Road safety has become a global health concern as thousands of “innocent” lives are lost every year through road accidents. Ghana as a country loses not less than 1.6 percent of its annual GDP through road carnages as breadwinners are lost leaving dependants poorer. Ghana has over the years adopted a national road policy to help reduce or eliminate road accidents and restore hope on our roads. Between 1999 and 2010, the commission has implemented programmes such as the National Road Safety Strategies (NRST1 & 2) to forestall increasing annual road carnages, but the challenge still persist. It is in light of these developments that a question is raised as to the effectiveness of our road safety policy in addressing accidents especially in Ashanti. A well thought out road safety policy, duly implemented and effectively monitored will do a lot of good in sanitizing our roads. This study seeks to examine the present state of Ghana’s Road Safety policy with regard to the trend of accidents in Ashanti region. It also sought to identify the level of stakeholder knowledge and adherence to National Road Safety policy. It again seeks to find out the capacity of implementing agencies and challenges they face in managing Ghana’s Road Safety policy. To achieve the above objectives, the researcher adopted the case study research design which included systematic observations, stratified and quota sampling techniques. The study came out with the following findings; majority of drivers got their training using unapproved methods, implementing agencies, such as the MTTU and DVLA are not well resourced, the attitude of drivers towards pedestrians do not ensure safety on our roads. Seventy (70) questionnaires were administered to the various stakeholders which include; Police MTTU, DVLA, DUR, Ghana Highways authority, Insurance companies, Transport unions, and private drivers. Recommendations if well implemented will be a panacea to help reduce the traffic carnages experienced on our roads and improve road safety, especially in Ashanti. Keywords - Stakeholders, Safety, Systematic Observation.