The National Road safety Authority (NRSA) has revealed that out of the 24,974 accidents recorded from March 2022 to March 2023 – 9,017 were caused by private vehicles.
According to statistics from the Authority, which has been published on its website, saloon cars accounted for 5,538 of the accidents involving private cars, or 61% of all accidents, while 363 minibus accidents accounted for 4% of all accidents, 171 vehicles were involved in 2% of accidents involving government vehicles and 2,945 vehicles were involved in 33% of accidents involving SUVs in the year 2022.
A total of 7,545 Commercial Vehicles also recorded fatal accidents within that same year with buses recording 1,132 contributing to 15% in this category.
Mini buses contributed 31.5% to 2,377 accidents, trucks contributed 14.5% to 151,095, taxis contributed 36.0% to 2,693 accidents, and other commercial vehicles contributed 3.0% to 248 accidents.
The Authority also revealed that motorcyclists contributed to road accidents last year in addition to passenger vehicles and business vehicles.
“Motorcycles recorded 4,243, bicycles recorded 212, hand carts 37 and tricycles recorded 1,192.” the statistics revealed
Furthermore, 2,728 pedestrians were also knocked down within the same period.
Due to these accidents, there were 18,016 casualties, 2,589 fatalities, 2,263 adult fatalities, 326 under-18 fatalities and 15,517 injuries last year.
Meanwhile, the NRSA has put in place measures to reduce road accidents such as cautioning drivers to drive within posted speed limits, take a break after driving for journeys of more than 8 hours or 500 kilometers.
Additionally, they advised drivers not to drive a motor vehicle shortly after consuming alcoholic beverages.
It would be recalled that last year the NRSA launched the 2022 road safety campaign under the theme “Stay Alive;Gaye Obonsam Agyuma Nu” to reduce road accidents.
The Authority also added a short code 194 as an additional toll-free number to aid law enforcement and related agencies in minimising accidents and other safety-related issues.
Ghana is one of the African nations that experiences traffic accidents on a global scale. The top 10 causes of mortality in Ghana, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include fatal traffic accidents.
In a related development, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) recently asked stakeholders to press for the swift modification of the Road Safety Act (2012) to address the dangers posed by abandoned, broken-down automobiles along roadways.
A mandatory towing policy for defective automobiles is to be put into place according to the Act.
The GJA President made the request at the Journalists Platform on Road Safety’s inaugural meeting in Accra, which was organised by CUTS International in partnership with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) and BIGRS with assistance from the Global Road Safety Partnership.
Mr. Dwumfour stressed that GJA was prepared to support the revision to the Act and exhorted journalists to take the lead in the advocacy.
He believed that road safety was a crucial issue for socioeconomic and health reasons, and as such, any attempt to promote it needed to be supported. He also noted that the problem persisted and that more work was needed to address it.
