In a bid to scale up the enforcement of robust road safety regulations, the Board of Directors of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority – SLRSA in collaboration with management has on Wednesday, 19 June, 2024 called on government and development partners to support the Authority with more equipment to rigidly enforce roads safety regulations.
The appeal, aimed at ensuring safety on the road to save lives, was registered by both the Chairman, Board of Directors, SLRSA, Sheik M. Bawoh, and the Executive Director, Reverend Smart K. Senessie, during a meeting held with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Ambassador Jean Todt, at the SLRSA Vehicle Testing Centre of Excellent at 6 Mile, in the Koya Rural district.
Outlining challenges faced by the SLRSA, Executive Director Reverend Smart K. Senessie implored audience that the Authority needs more tow-trucks for Freetown and other major cities, speed guns, ambulances, emergency response vehicles, patrol cars and host of others to enable them enforce road safety regulations. 
Also forming part of constraints confronting the SLRSA are lack of mobility for staff, challenging financial capacity of the Authority coupled with lack of subsides and subvention from the central government. He disclosed plans for the improvement of road safety through management of the highways.
The SLRSA Executive Director pleaded with the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Road Safety to support with more monitoring gadgets such as cameras and traffic lights, for monitoring of the highways in all districts. He described revenue generation by the Authority as another challenging issue, explaining that since vehicle licencing contract was awarded to a Private Public Partnership with huge percentage, the SLRSA only secures 20% of the proceeds from which 10% is allocated to the Road Maintenance Fund which inflicts serious financial burden on the Authority.
He informed that the Authority has identified sites for the construction of post-crash clinics at Magburaka and Masiaka, where crash victims will receive first aid treatments immediately after any accident. Reverend Senessie therefore called on government and development partners to support the SLRSA with the necessary equipment to enable them enforce road safety regulations and save lives. These, he continued, go along with the implementation of constant roads audits.
He said most of the accidents are caused by substandard vehicle spare parts and inadequate safety gears, such as UN standard crash helmets for motorbike riders. In a bid to combat road traffic crashes, the SLRSA Executive informed that the Authority is in closed collaboration with the Sierra Leone Standards Bureau in ensuring compliance with safety regulations.
Making a statement during a meeting with the United Nations Special Envoy on Road Safety at the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority Licencing and Vehicle Testing Centre, 6 Mile, the Chairman of Board of Directors, Sheik M. Bawoh, informed that the legal and regulatory framework envisaged a road safety architecture in Sierra Leone robust enough to ensure safety and security of all road users. He pointed out that that framework gave the Board of Directors of the SLRSA the onus of control and supervision of the Authority.
Bawoh explained that the Board, which he serves with humility as chairman, has a sacred duty to direct policy and guide management in the performance of its role of “regulation and development of the road transport industry, including the regulation and licensing of vehicles, the licensing of drivers, prescription of routes for passenger and goods transportation”.
Constituted in 2018, the current Board has striven to collaborate with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, management and all road safety actors in the country in seeking to enhance road safety via the mechanism of safer roads, safer road users and lawful regulation, while leveraging best practice, said the SLRSA Chairman, Board of Directors.
‘Let me hasten to add that our lofty vision of a “Sierra Leone where road transportation is safe and road traffic administration is effective and efficient” cannot be achieved without cooperation and collaboration of like-minded partners,’ he firmly registered the authority’s commitment towards enforcing safety on the road.
‘I join the rest of the Board and management to align with the goals of the second generation of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road safety (2021-2030) to, inter alia, improve global road safety through a holistic approach to road safety improvement in the design of roads and vehicles, robust enforcement of law and order by traffic police and our road safety corps, and mostly importantly the timeous life-saving intervention and emergency care for victims of road crashes…’
Bawoh applauded the UN Secretary-General’s foresight of appointing Mr. Todt as a global road safety envoy to champion the pertinent issues of safer roads, safer road users and sustainable interventions to ameliorate the impact of road traffic crashes on our society.
He continued that society being disproportionally affected by the menace of road crashes and their debilitating effects on Africa in general and Sierra Leone in particular needs international leadership, via the office of the UN Special Envoy, to coordinate action around sustainable road safety to this end. 
He expressed strong optimism that Mr Todt’s visit will undoubtedly help revamp local efforts in achieving global aspirations aimed at road safety and human security while moving from one place to another.
The SLRSA Board Chairman assured the UN Secretary General Special Envoy for Road Safety and his team that the Board and management will use this visit to ramp up efforts aimed at safer roads and safer road users, adding that such efforts include speed control in areas demarcated unsafe for speeding schools, hospitals, within towns by adhering to speed limits on highways, no drink and zero substance intake while driving, and public education and awareness about road usage, signs and signage.
The United Nations Secretary General Special Envoy for Road Safety, Ambassador Todt, in his statement registered his profound commitment to support Sierra Leone in enforcing road safety regulation to save lives, saying that Sierra Leone is henceforth top on his priority list for road safety.
He said everywhere around the world people are on the roads, with some severely injured due to noncompliance of simple rules such as safety belt, drunk driving and drinking while driving, being on the phones, etc. Ambassador Todt recalled meeting with the First Lady Madam Fatim Bio in Istanbul in 2023, where they decide to undertake the initiative to visit Sierra Leone. He observed that road safety goes along with collective responsibility and therefore urged all to be responsible and work with the SLRSA in ensuring road safety in the country. He called for the improvement of public transportation through the involvement of the private sector. Road safety always being high on the agenda, he encouraged the involvement of the Red Cross and the military hospitals.
The WHO COUNTRY REP also made similar commitments, praising government and the people of Sierra Leone for their collective commitments to always place road safety high on the agenda.
Head of Motor Drivers’ Union, Alpha Bah, in a goodwill message, acknowledge the high seals of road traffic crashes in the country, which he transcend national borders. He described public education as paramount in mitigating the alarming road. He observed that innovation and infrastructural and technological advancement to foster development will help reduce road crashes in the country. Bah also called for the enforcement of traffic laws within the legal framework.
He said ambulances and collaborations will help in achieving the collective to foster national goal for sustainable development.
Statements were also made by representatives from the Office of the First Lady, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority and Autospect.
