Road traffic accidents in the Ashanti Region have increased tremendously this year compared with figures of 2019, the Motor Traffic and Transport Division of the Ghana Police Service has revealed.
A summary of road accidents recorded in the region, from January to December 10, 2020, pointed to increased accidents and victims.
According to the report, the 3,137 reported cases of accidents over the period included 416 fatal, 1,013 serious, and 1,708 minor cases.
During the period under review, 2,404 commercial vehicles were involved in the road traffic accidents killing 247, while 1,733 private vehicles killed 104 persons, with 1,017 motorbikes and tricycles killing 167, totalling 518 (21% increase) against 202,90 and 117 respectively recorded in 2019..
The report also indicated that 2,088 persons were injured in road accidents against 691 and 974 by private vehicles and motorbikes.
It said the total knocked down from road accidents stands at 479 persons, and that the 518 deaths from road traffic accidents involved 420 males and 98 females, against 409 males and 83 females in 2019.
The summary report also indicated that the total number of males killed involved 47 below the age of 18, and 373 above 18 years.
Of the 98 females who died as a result of road accidents in the period, 29 were below 18 years, with 69 above the age of 18, the report revealed.
It was further indicated that 306 persons were killed by motorbikes and knockdowns with 1,453 being injured by same causes.
As a result of the increasing trend in the various aspects of road traffic accidents, the Ashanti Regional Command of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), headed by Commander Superintendent Emmanuel Adu Boahen, has stressed that the outfit was going all out to enforce all the road laws with emphasis on drink driving, speeding, seat belt and crash helmet wearing, misuse of horns and sirens, misuse of trade plates, and others.
The exercise, Supt. Adu Boahen explained, was geared towards reducing road traffic crashes before, during and after the Christmas festivities and the New Year, 2021.
It would be recalled that early this year, a proposed “Operation Produce Your Driver’s License” by the MTTD stalled at the instance of Mr. Akwasi Abu Bonsra, Amansie South Constituency Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Effective February 3, 2020, the MTTD proposed to embark on ‘Operation Produce Your Driver’s License” to enable its personnel to inspect the licenses of all drivers, and insisted that those who defaulted would be arrested and prosecuted.
But Chairman Abu criticised the operation, saying the MTTD Command cannot blame road accidents in the region on the availability or otherwise of drivers’ licenses.
The NPP Constituency Chairman cautioned the MTTD boss to discard the proposed “Operation Produce Your Driver’s License” or risk being reported to the President, nana Akufo-Addo, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh, and Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Bosiako, if the regional police administration refused to heed his urgent call.
Chairman Abu stressed that the timing of the exercise in an election year was wrong, and questioned the rationale behind the operation taking place first in the Ashanti Region.
The post 518 persons killed in road accidents in Ashanti Region appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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