A total of 243 people were killed in road crashes in the Ashanti Region between January and October, this year.
Police Superintendent Frank Abrokwa, Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), who announced this, said in all, 1,806 crashes were recorded during the period.
He put the number of people injured at 1,744.
He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a five-day training session for 119 national service personnel in Kumasi, under the urban traffic management module.
Supt. Abrokwa touched on pedestrian knockdowns and said there were 532 reported such cases.
He reminded the trainees to work with passion to assist to efficiently manage vehicular traffic in the city and check indiscipline.
They should sufficiently educate themselves on the laws governing the work they were going to do and to be civil in the performance of their assigned job.
He expressed concern about the careless disregard for traffic regulations, particularly by tricycle and motor riders – riding through the red light at traffic intersections – and said this could not continue.
The group is the third batch of national service personnel to benefit from the programme.
Their training is being jointly undertaken by the Police Service, Road Safety Commission, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), and is supported by Vanguard Assurance.
Commissioner of Police (COP) Maxwell Atingane, Director General of the MTTD, urged them to give it their all to help stop the carnage on roads in the region.
“You have not been thrown out there to fulfill the national service conditions but to serve mother Ghana,” he added.
He asked that discipline become their watchword, especially at a time the police service was building on its image.
They should be above reproach and resist any temptation to be corrupted, he added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Frederick Adu Anin, the Deputy Regional Commander, advised them to collaborate with the police officers, show respect and to understudy them.
The Reverend Kwame Adjei of the National Service Secretariat said it was refreshing that the introduction of the module had brought some improvement to urban traffic management.
