A total of 2,276 people died and 15,409 others suffered injuries as a result of 14,135 road crashes across the country, last year.
Compared with 2022, there were14,960 road crashes, which accounted for 4.49 per cent reduction with 2,373 deaths and 15,690 injuries in that year.
Last year, the deceased included 1,806 males and 470 females. Greater Accra Region recorded 4,797 deaths, being the highest, followed by Ashanti, 2,312 deaths and North West Region, 41 deaths.
The crashes, which resulted in 233 pedestrians knock downs,involved 8,084 commercial and 10,769 private vehicles as well as 5,147 motor cycles.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ms Pearl Sateckla Adusu, who disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra yesterday, identified distractive driving, speeding, wrongful overtaking and tyre burst as some of the causes of the accidents.
She said that tyre burst accounted for 10 per cent of causes of road crashes and speeding 40 per cent.
Mr Adusu noted that some drivers did not maintain their vehicles and others failed to check expiring dates of tyres.
She indicated effective collaboration among stakeholders and transport operators, sensitisationof the public, introduction of Police Action Against Rider Indiscipline (PAARI) and Stay a life campaigns by the Ghana Police Service and
the NRSA respectively, accounted for the reduction in road crashes.
The PRO stated that the NRSA would intensify its road safety campaign to reduce road crashes.
Ms Adusu expressed worry that in a day, an average of six to eight people died in road accident, which affected the country’s socio-economic development and human resource base.
She said road crashes was a public health issues which needed the collaboration of the NRS and public to reduce the menace.
The PRO called on duty bearers to work diligently, and urged drivers to adhere to road safety regulation to prevent accidents on the roads.
Ms Adusu asked various management of transport operators to strictly enforce traffic rules and regulations.
She commended the media for supporting the NRSA in sensitising drivers and the public on traffic regulations and called for stronger collaboration among all stakeholders to bring sanity on the roads.
Ms Adusu appealed to “the public and drivers to make road safety a priority at all times, to ensure that lives and properties are saved.”
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI
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