Fatal February: 171 died in road accidents; 23% drop from January
At least 171 people were killed in road accidents in February 2020. Data from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service has confirmed.
In theghanareport.com’s monthly update on road fatalities, this figure represents a drop in deaths recorded in January 2020. That month, 222 people died. The latest results show, there was a 23% drop in fatalities recorded in January.
In effect, 393 people lost their lives to road carnage in Ghana between January and February 2020.
An average of seven deaths from road accidents were recorded daily in January. But in February, that average dropped to nearly six deaths per day.
The data showed 1,111 road accidents were recorded in February, a dip by approximately 7% from the 1191 figure recorded in January 2020.
In summary, there were fewer accidents and fewer deaths in February than in January.
Data for January and February.
But deaths from road accidents in Ghana remain at disturbingly high levels.
The statistics showed that of the 393 people who have died in the last two months, 304 were males. Of these male fatalities, 279 were adults above the age of 18 and 25 were children.
Female fatalities in the last two months was 89, of which 68 were adults and 21 children.
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Commercial vehicles involved in the accidents were 1,430 while private vehicles, the most reckless of the vehicle categories, numbered 1,616 and motorcycles (motorcycles, bicycles, handcarts and tricycles) recorded 827.
Ashanti Region topped the table of fatalities and casualties with 73 deaths and 718 injuries followed by Greater Accra (Accra and Tema) with 68 deaths and 556 injuries.
The Central Region was next, with 68 deaths and 263 injuries. The last on the chart was the North-East Region, which recorded no accidents.
Some major incidents between January and February 2020:
-Dompoase accident in the Central Region at midnight on January 14, 2020, which claimed 34 lives and left 50 others injured.
– Nine people died after a road accident at Monkra in the Krachi-West District of the Oti Region on Saturday, February 15, 2020.
– Five members of the Tanokrom Methodist Church, on their way to a funeral, died on the spot on Saturday, February 1, when their vehicle collided head-on with an articulated truck at Gomoa Odumase near Apam in the Central Region.
– Four people of the same family died in an accident involving a Mercedes Benz and a Yuntong bus at Alhassan Akuraa in the Kintampo Municipality of the Bono Region on Monday, January 6.
– Six Ghanaian traders died on the spot after a truck on which they were travelling got involved in a fatal crash in Burkina Faso on New Year’s Day 2020 at about 5 p.m.
Head of Education, Research, and Training at the MTTD, Superintendent Alex Obeng said the trend was “significant and worrying.”
Although he acknowledged the reduced number of deaths, he showed concern that “one death is one too many” and the “minimal success” cannot be a celebration until the country reaches a target of zero deaths.
He repeated calls for an upgrade and the dualization of the major highways in Ghana.
“These spines [major highways] of Trans-West Africa Highways that is also serving this country should also be dualized and it should not be in the distant millennia but now,” he admonished.
Supt. Alex Obeng called for an end to human interference in the work of motor traffic regulatory and enforcement. He said this could be done by automation.
“We need to shift to automate our traffic efforts,” he suggested.
Several of his recommendations fall in line with resolutions at the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Stockholm, Sweden, in February 2020.
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