11,000 lives lost: Filmmaker urges action on Ghana’s road carnage
Road safety advocate and film practitioner Samuel Whyte has made a passionate appeal to President John Dramani Mahama and key government agencies to take decisive action to curb the growing number of road accidents in Ghana, which he described as a national crisis claiming thousands of lives each year.
In a video message released online, Mr Whyte called for urgent measures to address what he termed one of the country’s deadliest challenges.
He urged citizens to move beyond passive concern and actively participate in promoting safer roads through compliance with traffic regulations.
“This message is not about titles or positions. It is about people, families, and the urgency to act. We are united by the same highways, the same risks, and the same responsibilities to save lives. I come to you not as a politician, not as a policy expert, but as a Ghanaian who has seen too many funerals and preventable deaths,” he said.
Mr Whyte revealed alarming statistics to highlight the scale of the problem. “Between 2020 and 2025, Covid-19 claimed 1,462 Ghanaian lives. Road crashes have claimed 11,000 Ghanaian lives in the same period. When we shut down borders, closed schools, enforced mask mandates and curfews, we watched in silence as our roads became slaughterhouses… Yet we treat it as normal news,” he lamented.
He attributed the surge in road crashes to several preventable causes, including poor road user education, distracted driving, commercial pressure on drivers, weak enforcement of road regulations, poor infrastructure, inadequate road signage, and the lack of an effective emergency response system. He also criticised public indifference to the crisis, describing it as “perhaps, worse of all, public silence.”
Outlining practical solutions, Mr Whyte called on key institutions to take immediate action.
“The Samuel Whyte Foundation and the Coalition of Road Safety Content Creators are calling on the Ministry of Road and Transport to revise commercial driver regulations, the National Road Safety Authority to strengthen enforcement and crash investigations, the Ghana Health Service to treat road crashes as a tier 1 public health crisis, the Ghana Education Service to integrate road safety immediately into our schools, the media to give road safety the urgency it deserves, companies and ‘Trotro’ unions to train drivers and enforce rest and safety protocols,” he said.
Mr Whyte also appealed to the public to stop recording crash scenes and instead assist victims when accidents occur. “And to you, fellow Ghanaians, stop filming crash scenes and start helping… Driving is a professional field and must be treated as such because every life on our roads depends on it. Let us take up the responsibility, let us save lives, let’s end the silence and excuses because the next person in the casket could be someone you love,” he warned.
His message has since sparked conversations across social media, with many users commending his advocacy and urging authorities to heed his call for decisive action on Ghana’s worsening road safety situation.
