The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has revealed that 1,237 people died in road crashes between January and June 2024.
According to the NRSA, the majority of these fatalities were due to wrongful overtaking and drivers’ failure to observe traffic signs.
Pearl Adusu Sateckla, Head of Public Relations at the NRSA, described the situation as “worrying.”
She noted that head-on collisions, often caused by wrongful overtaking and speeding, are major contributory factors.
Research indicates that about 90% of drivers in the country do not adhere to speed limits, increasing the severity of crashes.
A summary of the provisional national traffic crash and casualty statistics indicates that a total of 6,653 road traffic crashes were reported from January to June 2024. These crashes involved 11,283 vehicles of all categories (Private, Commercial, Motorbikes/Cycles, etc.), and 8,798 casualties (1,237 fatalities/deaths and 7,561 injuries).
Knockdowns decreased by 4%, 4.5%, 3.8% and 1% respectively from January to June 2024 whilst persons killed increased by 13% when compared to the same period of 2023.
In June, 21 (12%) persons killed were below 18 years whilst 150 (88%) were reported to have been adults (above) 18 years. Likewise, from January to June, 149 (12%) persons killed were below the age of 18 years whilst 1088 (88%) were reported to have been adults (above 18 years).
In response, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Ghana has called on the government to urgently form a committee to thoroughly investigate the chain of events leading to recent road accidents and to make its findings public.
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this story, we mistakenly reported the number of injuries as the number of deaths. This error has been corrected, and we apologize sincerely for any confusion and distress this may have caused.
