By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Oct. 29, GNA – The Tema Police Region in the month of September 2022, recorded five fatal road crashes, 44 serious and 41 minor road incidents, a provisional report from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has revealed.
The data available to the Ghana News Agency in Tema shows that the data formed part of a total of 1,273 road crashes recorded nationwide with 160 being fatal, 413 serious, and 700 minor incidents.
The national figure of 1,273 represents a 0.71 per cent increase over the same period -September 2021 which recorded 1,264 total road crashes.
Meanwhile, Mr Tonny Dickson Afriford, a Road Crash and Injury Prevention Analyst has said that people should stop referring to road crashes as accidents as according to him, not all road crashes were accidents, therefore, it was unacceptable to refer to all crashes as accidents.
Mr Afriford explained accident as the cause of a crash could only be confirmed after investigations had been carried out by the Motor Traffic and Transport Directorate (MTTD) and road crash investigators.
He said this at the Ghana News Agency-Tema Office and MTTD Road Safety Campaign platform noting that an accident meant the crash occurred through no fault of the driver.
Such accidents, he said, could be due to mechanical faults such as brake failure, or other factors including driving on a foreign material on the road.
He explained that the different types of crashes included vehicle-to-vehicle, human-to-vehicle crashes, human crashes, pedestrian knockdowns, and murder or suicidal crashes.
Mr Afriford indicated that vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, also known as a head-on collision, occurred when two vehicles collide with each other, while human-to-vehicle crashes involved humans having direct contact with the vehicle during a crash.
He noted that a crash, especially in a head-on collision could also lead to a human internal crash in which internal bleeding could occur due to a brain crashing with the skull, or a broken internal bone getting into contact with a tissue, the heart, or other organs.
He explained that suicidal crashes involved people internationally causing a crash to commit suicide due to some problems they might be having.
He urged pedestrians and road users to be extra cautious when using the road to avoid any accident.
GNA