CAROSAF Remembers Road Victims

Cameroon Road

safety Foundation (CAROSAF), a Buea –based NGO that advocate’s road safety and high way injury prevention, on Sunday November 21, celebrated this year’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in grand style, it was observed.

 The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (approved by the United Nations Organization) is observed on the third Sunday of November each year worldwide.

Edwin Achimbom Minang, director of CAROSAF, told The Recorder that he was happy that CAROSAF‘s earmarked activities were successfully carried out to raise road safety- awareness.

The CAROSAF activities took place at Buea Mile 17 Motor Park and Mutengene, a road junction town, under the theme “We Support a Decade of Action for Road Safety: 2010-2020”

At Buea Motor Park and Mutengene,CAROSAF engaged in stopping vehicles and displaying placards carrying road safety messages.

Road safety stickers were also put on passing vehicles and drivers and passengers advised to always wear their seat-belts.

Minang was thankful to the delegation of Police officers, Ministry of Transport officials, The SDO of Fako,the Mayor of Buea,Fako Independent Transport Workers’Assocaition and Union of Fako Transporters, the road safety club of The National Advanced School of Public Works-Buea Annex- who all facilitated the success of the ceremony in one way or the other.Minang said his involvement of many classes of people in the road safety campaign was simply due to the fact that road safety should be everybody’s concern.

The public was later given a lecture on over-speeding and over –loading by Simon Ngembo(Traffic Engineer and CAROSAF consultant).Another talk on “Good Driving Habits’ was delivered by CAROSAF director,Achimbom Minang,who strongly condemned drunk-driving

The CAROSAF executive noted that road-safety campaigns are intended to reduce by at least 50% the number of deaths on the road.

The NGO is currently running a traffic controllers’ project to help cross school children in high traffic areas.Minang also disclosed that CAROSAF was already involved in a project designed to identify road accident victims for assistance, and to get them, in their numbers, join next year’s celebration.

 According to Minang, “The Road-crossing project was a major success in the 2009/2010 academic year. No incident of a child being injured or killed in a road crash was registered at any of the location where CAROSAF Traffic Controllers operated”.

The CAROSAF director, regetted that since 2005 when the UN approved the Day of Remembrance, “Cameroon- a UN member-state and listed as one of the countries with a high rate of road traffic accidents, is yet to organize any national activity in this regard”

CAROSAF activities so far have had a greater impact in Fako ,the division where its head office is found.