Road accidents claim 944 lives in Ghana in first six months of 2015
A total of 944 people were killed in vehicle crashes between January and June this year.
Statistics from the Ministry of Roads and Transport indicated there were 6,384 crashes involving 9,914 vehicles within the same period.
The ministry stated that though the crashes and vehicles involved saw 19.96 per cent and 19.20 per cent reductions respectively in the figures, these figures still needed to be reduced.
The Minister of Roads and Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor, said this in an address read on her behalf at the mid-year performance review conference of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) in Cape Coast last Wednesday.
The conference was also to launch the 2015-2017 national road safety action plan which forms part of the 2011-2020 national blueprint for the National Road Safety Strategy III.
Ministry not happy
Ms Attivor said though Ghana was ranked first among 23 countries in Africa by the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) in respect of the implementation of most road safety action plans developed within the framework of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety initiative, the ministry was unhappy with the current road casualty situation.
“We need improvement in our road safety situation in order to meet our national targets at the end of the decade,”she said, and called for effective collaboration among all stakeholder institutions to achieve this.
The situation in Central Region
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Aquainas Tawiah Quansah, noted that 417 accident cases were recorded between January and July 2015, resulting in 72 deaths and 452 injuries.
That, he said, also represented a 46-per cent reduction in the number of deaths and a 42 per cent reduction in the number of injuries for the same period last year.
He called for more work to sustain the reduction in figures.
The Executive Director of the NRSC, Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, noted that there was a crucial need to strengthen collaboration to help reduce road disasters.
“The commission has been working with its stakeholders to develop strategies and action plans based on data and research to implement measures and systems that are expected to motivate and improve our national road safety situation,” she said.
The President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, who chaired the function, called for more effective measures to enhance safety on the roads.
Source: Daily Graphic