Serious injuries and fatalities from Road traffic accidents is on the rise despite the over all rates of such incidents reducing by 17 per cent in 2022 over the 2021 figures.
This was in the Accra Metropolis alone. While road traffic campaigners are hailing this development as a major improvement, they insist the numbers are still unduly high.
These findings were contained in the Accra road safety report, 2023, which was launched in Accra on November 7.
The report was prepared in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety to help in implementing road safety interventions in Accra. The report stated that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists constituted
most of the reported deaths in 2022 and showed that many of those who died were from crashes which occurred in the evening between 1800 hours and 2200 hours.
It also indicated that half of the reported deaths occurred from crashes on weekends, specifically, from Friday to Sundays, 6pm to 10pm.
Dr. Raphael Awuah a member of vital strategies, the team that conducted the research, advocates the need for increased sensitization and provision of road safety measures to ensure road sanity.
“It is good that we have recorded some decline, but it’s not good enough, given that pedestrians constitute the majority of those involved in fatalities. Our drivers have a mentality that the roads are only for vehicles, and that is a main factor to deal with”, he added.
The study also compared the rate of fatalities on three of Accra’s major Highways.
The N1 which runs from Mallam to Tetteh Quarshie was the most dangerous highway. It recorded 60 deaths, 20 major injuries over the year.
The two other highways mentioned in the report the N4 Highway, which is the stretch from Shiashie through to atomic and the N6 Highway, from Apenkwa to Ofankor were considered safer, because of their numbers.
Eight out of every 10 road deaths are men, who are aged between 20 and 29 years, and this pattern has been so, also in the last 5 years.
Director of the National Road Safety Authority, Alexander Ayatah, called on advocacy groups and non-governmental organisations to use the report to make a case for
policy changes and increased investment in road safety initiatives, emphasizing that; “The data can be a powerful tool for raising awareness and lobbying for improvements and policy change”.
The Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Sackey, stated that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s initiative for a Second Decade of Action for Road Safety is targeted at reducing road deaths and injuries by at least, 50 per cent by 2030.