He says public transport drivers ought to undergo training before they are allowed to gain a license
The Centre For Transport Security Dialogue (CTSD), a non-governmental organization that focuses on road safety, has bemoaned the rate at which road crashes occur on the country’s highways.
The Country Director for the CTD, Kofi Asante, who was speaking on Tonton Sansan on TV XYZ indicated that road crashes in 2021 alone have killed more persons than the deadly COVID-19, stressing that the government needs to employ measures to reduce road carnages.
“Ghana’s road accidents have reached an epidemic level because road crashes have killed about 1,707 people which is more than the people killed by COVID-19 so far,” Asante told host Prince Kwame Minkah Thursday morning.
“If COVID has killed about 1,036 and road crashes have killed about 1,706 as of July 31, 2021, I don’t know why someone would argue with me that road crashes have not reached an epidemic level,” he added.
Ten people died on the spot after two buses collided at Gomoa Mampong on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway in the Central Region in August 2021.
Mr. Asante said the “needless” road carnages can be reduced drastically when there is the will on the part of the authorities to clamp down on lawlessness on the country’s highways.
Although he acknowledged that there may be natural and mechanical causes of road accidents, Asante was also quick to add that negligence on the part of drivers contributes to the heightening road crashes.
He also added that faulty vehicles left on Ghana’s highways unattended also contribute to road crashes that keep killing a chunk of the youth and reduce the human capital of the country.
“All the road accidents recorded this year; I mean 11 percent of the over 9520 lorry accidents that have been recorded in the country were caused by faulty cars that were parked unattended to on our roads,” he lamented as he rallied for a robust towing system in the country.
To him, public transport drivers ought to undergo training before they are allowed to go through the processes to acquire drivers’ licenses.
According to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, up to 9,520 motor crashes were recorded before August this year.
The accidents involved 16,226 vehicles between January 1 and July 31 this year, with 1,706 persons killed and 9,299 others injured in those accidents,
The then Head of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, Superintendent Alexander Obeng, said human factors such as drink-driving, fatigue driving, dangerous driving, and careless driving caused the accidents.
He also noted that speeding, wrongful overtaking, poor vision, mobile phone usage, disregard for road signs and markings, overloading, and pedestrian and vehicle conflicts were among other factors that led to those motor crashes.
Obeng who was speaking at a sensitization programme for motor riders in Ghana’s capital, Accra, called on stakeholders in the road transport industry to join the police to find a lasting solution to the carnage on the country’s roads.