The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has revealed that the number of people killed in road accidents has increased from 35 in 2022 to 55 in 2023. Additionally, the number of vehicles involved in road accidents has risen from 184 in 2022 to 196 in 2023. Pedestrian knockdowns have increased from 17 in 2022 to 25 within the same period in 2023.
John Quarshie, Principal Transport Officer for the Upper East Regional Road Safety Authority, shared these statistics when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today.
Mr. Quarshie explained that there had been an increase in fatalities, the number of vehicles involved in road accidents, and pedestrian knockdowns, largely due to overspeeding.
“Basically, it is overspeeding. Of the 122 casualties we recorded, if you consider the vehicles that contributed, motorcycles contributed about 89 percent. Commercial vehicles also contributed 5 percent, and private vehicles contributed 6 percent. If motorbikes are contributing 89 percent, and out of that, we have 54 that are fatal crashes, that should tell you that when motorbikes crash and people lose their lives, it is overspeeding because the impact was great. We believe that speeding causes 90 percent of road crashes in the region,” he said.
According to the NRSA, streetlights on the principal streets have been helpful in making the situation slightly better than it could have been.
“You would record that in Bolgatanga, on the principal streets, we didn’t have the streetlights functioning, and so we were recording higher pedestrian knockdowns. Since we had the streetlights working within the town, particularly the main stretch up to Sumbrungu through to Navrongo, you would realize that pedestrian knockdowns have come down. That means that night visibility has improved,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NRSA has launched a road safety campaign ahead of the festive period.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
