By Lamin Njie
The Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, in line with its Road Safety Strategy Plan 2030 to achieve zero fatalities and injuries on traffic road accidents, recently concluded a ten –day road safety sensitisation campaign for over 5000 students in schools located along major highways in the Greater Banjul Area and West Coast Region.
According to police Accident Report 2021, annually, there are over 700 cases of road traffic crashes and about 123 fatal cases in The Gambia.
Over the past few years, several road traffic accident cases have been reported in schools along highways in the country; particularly in the Greater Banjul Area, prompting the Ministry of Transport, Works & Infrastructure with stakeholder institutions to conduct this very important sensitisation in schools.
The sensitisation programme aims at improving road user attitudes and behavior among school-going children, who frequently use the roads. This important campaign was conducted by the members of the Road Safety Working Group sub-committee on advocacy and education.
The sensitisation was conducted in 44 piloted schools including nursery, lower basic, upper basic, and senior secondary schools.
During the campaign, it was observed that most of the students lack proper knowledge of the use of pedestrian facilities, and the drivers also lack knowledge on the interpretation of traffic signs.
It was recommended that more awareness campaigns be conducted for schools in other parts of the country, in order to increase road safety knowledge among school-going children.
It was also recommended that the Gambia Police Force deploys traffic officers at all school gates along major highways, since their presence at school environments minimises students’ involvement in road crashes. Other proposals include: repainting and construction of speed bumpsat school zones, organising regional and national debate and drama competitions amongst schools across the country, introducing road safety clubs in schools among other issues.