David Osafo Adonteng the Acting Director General for the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says some arrangements and policies are helping to handle the cases of road accidents differently even though they have recorded a 30% increase in deaths.
He said their outlet is wishing and working hard to see a decrease in road accidents.
“It’s every country’s dream to end road accidents and we are looking forward to reaching that point too and we are working on it we have measures in place to fix up, “he said.
He advised Ghanaians to keep supporting the road safety campaign, and the media to keep up the good work as well as take our safety into our hands whenever we think of using the road.
A report conducted by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service for July 2023 revealed that road crashes increased by 4.31 percent.
Deaths resulting from road crashes also increased by 30.07 percent for the period.
1,233 crashes were recorded involving 2,099 vehicles with 186 deaths leaving 1328 persons injured in 2023.
Reported crashes, vehicles involved, persons killed, and persons injured increased by 4.31%, 5.42%, 30.07% and 8.76% respectively.
For the same in 2022, 1,182 crashes were recorded involving 1,991 vehicles with 143 deaths leaving 1221 persons injured.
Pedestrian knockdowns reduced from 224 to 213 in July 2023 compared to July 2022.
A total of 8,137 road traffic crashes were also reported from January to July 2023.
These crashes involved 13,862 vehicles of all categories (Private, Commercial, Motorbikes/Cycles, etc.), and 10,407 casualties (1,272 fatalities/deaths and 9,135 injuries).
In the month of July, 54% (670) of the crashes were minor, 33% (405) were severe crashes and 13% (158) were fatal crashes out of the 1,233 crashes reported.
Similarly, out of the 8,137 road traffic crashes reported from January to July 2023, 54% (4,364) were minor crashes, 33% (2,713) were serious crashes and the remaining 13% (1,060) were fatal crashes.
Nine out of the sixteen regions also had increases in crashes.
Upper East, Ahafo, Upper West, Volta, Central, Eastern, Bono, Western North, and Ashanti regions recorded increases in Crashes by 300%, 180%, 150%, 122.2%, 88.4%, 33.3%, 29.9% 15.4%, 5.6% and 3.5% respectively in July 2023 compared to the same period of 2022. North East region recorded no change and the remaining regions recorded decreases over the same period with Savannah Region had the highest percentage decrease by 90%.
Generally, there have been increases in all major indicators except for Pedestrian Knockdowns for July 2023 whilst reductions were recorded in all major indicators for January to July 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.
Story by: Ahma Baidoo / Ahotoronline.com
