Road crashes kill more than 1,700 in 2021
Up to 9,520 motor crashes involving 16,226 vehicles have been reported between January 1 and July 31 this year, with 1,706 persons killed and 9,299 others injured in those accidents, the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service has reported.
The Head of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, Superintendent Alexander Obeng, said human factors such as drink-driving, fatigue driving, dangerous driving, careless driving, speeding, wrongful overtaking, poor vision, mobile phone usage, disregard for road signs and markings, overloading, and pedestrian and vehicle conflicts were among factors that led to those motor crashes.
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He said the current driver behaviour and its associated high rate of road crashes and attendant deaths, injuries of all kinds and destruction of property had placed a huge responsibility on all to work together for a common good.
Supt Obeng consequently called on stakeholders in the road transport industry to join the police to find a lasting solution to the carnage on the country’s roads.
Supt Obeng made the call at a sensitisation workshop for motorbike riders organised by Glovo Ghana in collaboration with the MTTD in Accra last Wednesday.
Solution
He said designing road safety activity interventions such as sensitisation, awareness creation, capacity building and defensive driver training formed a basic but surest way of impacting and effecting change among motorcycle riders.
"Adoption and application of road furniture such as road fixtures, markings and signs will not only make us defensive drivers, but also ensure our survival and safety as drivers," he added.
Awareness
The General Manager for Glovo Ghana, Mrs Pearlyn Budu, said the workshop was intended to raise awareness of road safety requirements to ensure that riders complied with the regulations.
"We realised that there was a huge rise in road accidents, and we are heavily investing to make sure that we protect not only our riders but also the general public.
“The workshop will be organised periodically to ensure that riders keep up with the regulations to help reduce road accidents in the country,” she said.