By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, July 25, GNA— The death toll recorded through road crashes from January to June 2024 increased by 12.97 per cent as compared to the same period last year, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has said.
However, road crash incidents between January and June 2024 dropped by 4.01 per cent.
According to a National Road Traffic Crash and Casualty Statistics report from the Authority, some 1,237 lives were lost through road crashes from January to June 2024 whereas 1,095 persons died in the same period last year.
A total of 6,653 road crashes were also recorded between January and June 2024 as compared to 6,931 crashes from January to June 2023.
The crashes involved 11,283 vehicles of all categories (Private, Commercial, Motorbikes/Cycles, etc.), and 8,798 casualties (involving 7,561 injuries).
The report said 3,401 (51 per cent) of the crashes were minor; 2,261 (34 per cent) were serious, and the remaining 991 (15 per cent) were fatal crashes.
Fatal crashes are crashes which have resulted in the death of at least one person/victim of the crash within 30 days of the crash.
Serious crashes involve a serious injury of at least one person/victim of the crash leading to hospitalisation of at least 24 hours.
Minor crashes are those that have resulted in the minor injury of at least one person/victim of the crash leading to hospitalisation of less than 24 hours or no injuries at all.
A total of 1,219 pedestrians were knocked down from January to June 2024.
This represents a decrease of 1.9 per cent for the same period in 2023 (1,212 knockdowns).
From January to June, 149 (12 per cent) persons killed through crashes were below the age of 18 years whilst 1,088 (88 per cent) were adults (above 18 years).
This indicates that for every seven adults (above 18 years) killed, a child (below 18 years) is killed, revealing a relatively high road traffic death ratio (7:1) for adults than for children within the period.
The statistics are partly due to the high risk of exposure of adults to traffic incidences as compared to children.
The distribution of the death toll by sex showed that some 978 (79 per cent) males and 259 (21 per cent) females were killed from January to June 2024.
The data revealed a ratio of 1:4, thus, for every 1 female killed, 4 males were killed.
This shows a similar trend in past years of higher fatalities for males than for females.
Private vehicles-4,827, constituted the largest proportion of vehicles involved in crashes, followed by commercial vehicles-3,865 and motorcycles-2,591, with the least proportion.
The report said except for persons killed which recorded an increase of about 13 per cent, there were decreases in all other indicators from January to June 2024 when compared to the same period of 2023.
It said the Greater Accra Region recorded a significant drop in fatalities of 11.7 per cent compared to 2023.
Ashanti Region, on the other hand, recorded a hike in deaths (131) resulting in a 67.5 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023.
The NRSA said despite Greater Accra experiencing more than double (200 per cent) the number of crashes recorded in the Eastern Region over the past six months, the Eastern Region still surpassed Greater Accra in terms of deaths.
It said based on the analysis, for every 100 crashes, the Eastern Region recorded 27 deaths as against 10 deaths for the Greater Accra Region.
The report said although private vehicles were witnessing a decline in crash involvement over the past five months, more private vehicles than commercial vehicles were involved in crashes.
The Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra regions are the critical regions when it comes to Change in Deaths in Ghana.
The report said the NRSA, in collaboration with its stakeholders, would re-strategise efforts to improve the situation ahead of the 2024 General Election.
GNA