By Samuel Dodoo
Accra, Oct. 12, GNA – Statistics from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) indicate that over 45,000 people died in road accidents between 2000 and 2021 alone in Ghana.
The general road safety problems identified as the causes of the carnage were indiscipline among road users such as speeding excessively, wrong overtaking, drink-driving, non-adherence to mandatory rest periods, inattentiveness and distraction.
Others were pedestrians road crossing without due care, passengers not wearing seatbelts, motorcyclists not wearing crash helmets and disrespect to traffic rules, especially at signalized intersections.
Mr Daniel Wuaku, the Director of Planning and Programmes of the NRSA, made this known to the Ghana News Agency at a two-day workshop on Strategic Communication for Road Safety in Accra as part of efforts to help reduce accidents.
It was sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety and its international partners Vital Strategies, Johns Hopkins University, World Bank, Global Road Safety Fund, World Health Organisation and the World Resource Institute.
Mr Wuaku said with the regional distribution of fatalities in Ghana, Greater Accra top the list with 43.1 per cent, followed by Ashanti at 23.5 per cent and Eastern Region at 10.5 per cent.
He said travel speeds had a major effect on the probability of road traffic crashes and the severity of the injuries.
The Road Safety Expert said: “When a car knocked you down running on a speed limit of 32 kilometres your chance of survival is 95 per cent but when it was running on a limit of 64 kilometres your survival rate is 15 per cent.”
Mr Wuaku said, in view of the problems, the NRSA introduced the use of vehicle logbooks targeted at transport operators to help enforce the protocols on maximum driving hours and high speeds.
Another activity to enforce road regulation is a supply of speed guns to the Motor Transport and Traffic Department of the Police Service to check over-speeding and ongoing dialogue on the speed limiters in commercial vehicles.
He urged drivers to abide by road safety regulations and desist from acts such as speeding that puts the lives of passengers in danger.
Mr Osei Kuffour, the Initiative Coordinator for Bloomberg Philanthropies, highlighted some of the achievements when he welcomed the participants such as the launch of the Accra Road Safety Strategy Council, to effectively tackle the menace in the Accra Metropolis.
Others were donations of several policing items to the Police MTTD Taskforce, road safety enhancement work in several places in Accra and the commissioning of the Tactical Urbanism Project at James Town to curb fatalities.
GNA