About 1,817 lives lost in Ghana to road crashes in eight months
Mr Felix Owusu, Greater Accra Regional Planning Manager, National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has disclosed that a total of 1,817 people lost their lives in 9,820 road crashes reported in Ghana between January and September 2024.
Mr Owusu said out of the total number of deaths, 284 people got killed from 2944 crashes in the Greater Accra Region, adding that human error accounted for over 90 percent of the crashes.
He made this known during a training workshop for Tema commercial bus drivers on safety driving organised by NRSA in partnership with Hollard Insurance Ghana Limited, Jaxn Medical Diagnostics Services, and Tema Metropolitan Assembly with sponsorship from Vivo Energy Ghana.
He said most of these crashes could have been avoided if passengers, pedestrians, drivers, cyclists, and other stakeholders were careful enough on the roads.
He therefore advised drivers to adopt the two-second drive gap in the dry seasons and increase it to a four-second gap in the rainy season as the roads become slippery during that period.
Mr Owusu explained that every road had its speed limit, noting that drivers must adopt a 30 kilometres per hour (km/h) speed limit within a school, playground, health facility, market, or mosque area, among others; 50 km/h within urban or built-up areas; 90 km/h outside built-up areas; and 100 km/h on a motorway.
He warned against distracted driving, which consisted of the use of mobile devices, chemical impairment from the intake of alcoholic beverages, fatigue, depression, and anger, among others, as they could lead to road crashes or collisions.
The Regional Planning Manager, NRSA, advised drivers to do regular maintenance of their vehicles for efficient and effective performance of their tasks safely while pleading with them to ensure sanity on the roads.
Dr Jackson Latsae of Jaxn Medical Diagnostics Services, which facilitated the screening of the drivers, said the areas of screening were blood pressure, blood sugar, and body temperature, noting that most of the drivers screened had alarming conditions they were not aware of.
He stressed the need for drivers to make time to check their health status regularly and appealed to companies to voluntarily hold free screenings for the drivers as part of their corporate social responsibilities.
“Every high sugar level can completely shut your eyes; you can totally go blind suddenly; the same way with high blood pressure, it can cause a sudden stroke even while you’re driving; it just runs through you, and that will be it,” he said.
Ms Agarthy Akorfu, an official from Hollard Insurance Ghana Limited, Head- Office, stressed the need for drivers to insure their cars to receive support when the need arises, adding that long-risk customers are given specific packages during insurance renewal and immediately taken care of when an issue occurs.
She said the price of the package depends on the capacity of the vehicle, adding however that the premiums were moderate for every driver irrespective of the vehicle they used.