Practice of road safety protocols help reduce road accidents and deaths
Road crash data on mortality trends have shown an increase in road traffic deaths by 32% between 2019 and 2020 in Accra.
According to the Police Crash Report for Accra, in 2019 and 2020, 103 and 136 deaths respectively were recorded.
This represents 32 percent of all road traffic deaths.
The African Regional Advisor on Data and Surveillance for Vital Strategies, Dr. Raphael Awuah, disclosed this on Tuesday, 15 June at the strategic planning meeting organized by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) in collaboration with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for Public Relations Officers in road safety stakeholder organizations.
“The data by road user type for the year 2020 indicated that vulnerable road users accounted for 85 percent of deaths with over half being among pedestrians,” he said.
He said pedestrians, motorcyclists, vehicle occupants, and bicyclists accounted for 56 percent, 28 percent, 15 percent, and one percent respectively of all road traffic deaths in 2020 adding that the highest proportion of reported deaths were those in the youthful and economically active age group of 20 to 39 years.
“The age group of 20 to 39 years accounted for 43 percent of road traffic deaths, while that of 40 to 59 years, 0 to 19 years, as well as 60 years and above, accounted for 29 percent, 24 percent, and 4 percent respectively,” he said.
He pointed out that a quarter of the reported deaths also occurred following crashes between 4 pm and 8 pm representing 25 percent.
He also added that data on deaths by day of the week revealed that 50 percent of all the reported fatalities occurred due to weekend crashes mostly from Friday to Sunday.
“Fatal crash locations from 2018 to 2020 include the Apenkwa interchange, Lapaz, Kwashieman, North Dzorwulu, and Kawukudi intersections, as well as the Vodafone intersection at Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Hansonic to Odorkor, Roxy and Abeka junctions and from Shiashie to Okponglo road,” he added.
He said observational data identified driving above speed limits in the city of Accra as a major cause of road traffic deaths and urged road users especially motorcyclists and drivers to obey road traffic regulations.
The Director for Planning and Programming at the National Road Safety Authority, (NRSA), David Osafo Adonteng, in a presentation, said the high level of indiscipline on the roads have led to a high number of recorded deaths over the years.
He said speeding, wrongful overtaking and inattentiveness and distraction, crossing roads without care or jaywalking, none wearing of seat belts, not wearing crash helmets and not obeying traffic signals especially red lights were among the major indiscipline among road users which leads to road crashes.
He noted that the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on road safety had recommended mass media campaigns, mandatory driver training, regulation of commercial transport operation, dualization of major highways, the introduction of electronic policing to deal with speeding, a war against indiscipline, the harmonization of ICT Systems to enhance road safety management as well as road safety financing to inform Ghana’s strategy from 2021 to 2030.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Richard Nyarko of the Central Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), said 252 people were arrested and prosecuted between January and June 2021 for speeding in Accra, adding that, a comprehensive speed enforcement plan was being developed to enhance speed enforcement activities in the city.