By Isaac Arkoh
Cape Coast, Aug. 16, GNA – One hundred and seven (107) people in the Central Region lost their lives during the first half of this year through road crashes.
Commercial vehicles and private crashes killed 56 of them, motorcycles claiming 31 lives and pedestrian knock- downs killing 20.
However, the Region recorded marginal reductions in nearly all the major road safety indicators from January to June.
The road safety pointers such as vehicles involved, pedestrian knockdowns, crashes, deaths, and fatalities realized a cumulative margin of decline by 16.9 percent with ratio of 7.0, 5.8, 17.3 and 30.1 percent respectively, even though people injured increased by 30.1 percent.
Ms Linda Affotey Annang, Regional Head of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) said the road outlook for the period was positive.
She revealed that the months of March and May recorded the highest number of crashes (101), whilst January recorded the least number of 51 crashes.
Road accident deaths decreased from January to April and increased marginally from May and June in the second quarter.
She told the Ghana News Agency, a total of 492 road crashes were recorded as compared to 529 in 2022 and attributed the feat to a step-up in road safety education and enforcement by stakeholders.
She mentioned the UN Global Road Safety Week for Pedestrian and called on policy makers to #RethinkMobility to make walking, cycling, and public transport safe and convenient so that people can make the shift to active, sustainable mobility.
Ms Affotey-Annang said crashes involving private, commercial, motorbikes, or cycles reduced from 826.
Of the total of 492 crashes reported, 281 representing 57 percent were minor crashes, 142 (28 percent) were serious and 69 (14 percent) were fatal.
A total of 325 commercial vehicles crashed, whilst 295 private vehicles and 158 motorcycles also crashed
The month of May recorded the highest number of injuries with 252 injuries, whilst January recorded the least with 48 injuries.
The trend however, indicated a slight increase in the number of injuries recorded in the first quarter this year as compared to 2022.
Commercial vehicles constituted the largest proportion of vehicles involved in crashes from January to June 2023, representing 42 percent followed by private vehicles with 38 percent and motorcycles with the least proportion of 20 percent.
All the vehicle types involved in crashes; private vehicles and motorcycles decreased by 7.5 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.
On age categories, she said seven people representing eight percent of those killed were below the age of 18 years, whilst 79 making-up 92 percent were adults above 18 years.
This was partly due to the high risk of exposure of adults to traffic incidences as compared to children.
Gender distribution of road traffic fatalities showed that 64 males representing 74 percent as against 28 females representing 26 percent were killed.
The figure represents a ratio of 1:3, with one female as against three males killed in similar trend in past.
GNA