CUTS International, a leading policy research and consumer advocacy organisation, has called on the Government to declare road safety a national public health emergency, following the alarming spike in road traffic fatalities and injuries recorded in the first half of 2025.
Addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako, West Africa Regional Director of CUTS International, expressed grave concern over the growing national tragedy unfolding daily on Ghana’s roads.
“Travelling on our roads today requires fasting, prayer and courage,” he said, adding “it is no longer just a transport issue. It is a public health crisis, a development challenge and a national security threat. Road crashes are killing more Ghanaians than pandemics.”
Quoting data from the Ghana Police Service, Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako, revealed that between January and June 2025, Ghana recorded 7,289 road crashes involving 12,354 vehicles, resulting in 1,504 deaths and over 8,300 injuries. Additionally, he said 1,301 pedestrians were knocked down during this period.
To him, this marks a 22 percent rise in deaths and a 10 percent increase in injuries, compared to the same period in 2024. The Ashanti Region emerged as the most fatal, recording 60 deaths in June alone, followed by the Eastern Region with 46 deaths and Greater Accra, which saw a slight reduction from 27 deaths in June 2024 to 22 in June 2025.
“These are not just numbers. Each one represents a human life, a loved one, a breadwinner, a student, a worker whose future was stolen and whose absence now leaves a void in their families and communities,” Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako said.
Indeed, it is not only Mr Adomako and his outfit – CUTS – that is worried over this alarming statistics – The Chronicle is equally worried. Despite all educational campaigns usually embarked upon by both the police and the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), the rate of road crashes keep rising. Per the statistics released by CUTS, motor riders seem to be the worse culprits.
This is so because they always disregard traffic rules and ride haphazardly. In most of the cases, they ride through red traffic right in front of traffic police officers, but nothing is done to them even though these officers have motorbikes they could have used to chase and arrest the offenders. Meanwhile, let a saloon car go through the same red traffic and you see these officers jumping onto their bikes to chase them.
With regards to cars and vehicles, they also drive on our roads with careless abandon. Sometimes commercial cars in particular, with passengers on board, are seen overtaking slow moving cars ahead of them in sharp curves, with the passengers on board not raising any whimper. As we put this piece together, there is a video circulating on social media where a passenger vehicle is seen overtaking a truck at one of the curves on the Adukrom-Somanya road, in the Eastern region.
Though other vehicles were cautiously following the truck, the two passenger cars veered onto the opposite lane and overtook the truck. Dear reader, your guess could be as good as ours if another vehicle had emerged at that material moment. This tells a story that most of the accidents that occur on our roads are caused by human error or lack of proper judgement by the drivers.
This is why the police must intensify their surveillance on our roads, especially on the highways, to arrest some of these offending drivers. Passengers must also be educated to caution drivers should they observe any careless driving, to complement the efforts of the police. We believe when this is done the country will be able to reduce the alarming statistics and also ensure safety on our roads.
We also cease this opportunity to advice the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to caution his men to look out for motor riders who always disregard traffic regulations. It is high time they started chasing these riders who ride through red traffic lights, because the practice is dangerous to other road users.
