Road Accident Kills 1,237 People in First Half of 2024

Tragedy continues to haunt Ghana’s roads as the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) reports a staggering 1,237 deaths from road crashes between January and June 2024. This grim statistic underscores a pressing concern regarding road safety practices across the country.

According to Pearl Adusu Sateckla, Head of Public Relations at NRSA, majority of the deaths were caused by reckless overtaking and disregard for traffic signs.

“The situation is deeply worrying,” she remarked, highlighting that many crashes resulted from head-on collisions due to speeding and wrongful overtaking.

She added, “The contributory factor might be as a result of head-on-collision, and head-on-collision is as a result of wrongful overtaking and overspeeding. Research has shown that about 90% of our drivers plying our roads in the country do not adhere to the speed limits in the country. When the speed is high, the severity of the crash is so much”.

The provisional national traffic crash report for the first half of 2024 reveals a total of 6,653 reported road traffic crashes, involving 11,283 vehicles of various categories. These incidents led to 8,798 casualties, including 7,561 injuries alongside the 1,237 deaths.

Comparing the data with the same period in 2023, while there was a decrease in knockdowns by 4%, 4.5%, 3.8%, and 1%, fatalities increased by 13%. The report further notes a concerning trend where a significant number of those killed—88%—were adults above 18 years, with children below 18 years accounting for the remaining 12%.

Regionally, the Bono Region saw the highest increase in crashes at 41.5%, while the Upper East Region reported the highest decrease by 41.2%. Remarkably, the Oti Region experienced a 500% surge, and the Savannah Region followed with a notable 288.9% increase in crashes.

In terms of deaths, the Greater Accra Region saw an 11.7% reduction, contrasting sharply with the Ashanti Region’s alarming 67.5% rise in deaths, totaling 131 fatalities within the period.

The disparities in deaths rates per crash between regions are also stark. For instance, the Eastern Region recorded 27 deaths per 100 crashes, whereas the Greater Accra Region reported 10 deaths per 100 crashes, despite experiencing double the number of crashes compared to the Eastern Region.

Reacting to these distressing figures, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Ghana has called on government to promptly establish a committee to investigate recent road accidents comprehensively. They emphasize the importance of making the findings public to address the root causes of these incidents.