Road traffic accidents ‘epidemic?’ - Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd) writes
Knowing the road traffic indiscipline on our roads, before driving out of the house each morning, I pray for patience.
Yet within minutes of leaving home, my patience gets sorely tested.
On two occasions last week, I had to dig deep into what the Defensive Driving Skills Automobile-Association (AA) taught me in 1974, to avert near crashes.
Data from the National Road Safety Authority and the MTTD show about a 20 per cent increase in RTA in 2025 from 2024.
Provisional figures for mid-December 2025 are: Total crashes, approximately 13,000; fatalities (deaths), approximately 2,600; injuries, approximately 13,000.
While the January-August 2025 figures stood at 1,937 dead, it marked a 20 per cent increase over the 2024 figure.
Injuries saw a 10.2 per cent increase, while total crashes increased by eleven per cent.
This alarming situation took me back to my most recent article on RTAs titled Bad Roads, Reckless Driving and RTAs, published in May 2025. Part read:
Road traffic accidents (RTAs)
Earlier, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, an RTA at Amanase on the Accra-Kumasi Highway, an accident involving a fuel tanker and a Sprinter bus, left eleven dead and many critically injured.
May 1, 2025, started with an accident at Yeji, Bono-East, on the Kumasi-Tamale Highway.
Eight people were killed, with eleven in critical condition.
I asked myself, what has changed since my 2017 article on RTAs titled “Motorway Kamikaze Driving?” Parts read:
In a recent publication, Ghana’s death toll of over 1,700 casualties in the first nine months of 2016 was adjudged one of the highest in the world.
As a little boy living in Michel Camp with my parents in the early 1960s, I had the pleasure and privilege of being one of the early users of the newly constructed Accra-Tema Motorway, taking rides with my parents anytime they came to Accra.
The 19-kilometre solid concrete road was modelled on the German autobahn and was intended by President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to be the first of many such motorways to link major cities in Ghana.
It was simply an amazing construction and I loved being driven on it.
There were telephone booths at regular intervals for emergencies and solid ground reflectors for night driving.
Today, however, in my retirement, even though it is the fastest way of getting to Accra from my home, I avoid the motorway like the plague if I can. Why?
It has become a death-trap, with accidents occurring frequently.
People drive on it at top speeds like Jehu, overtaking every vehicle in sight while crisscrossing and zigzagging to avoid potholes!
Indeed, some drive like Japanese pilots on a Kamikaze mission!
Kamikaze
Towards the end of World War II in 1945, Japan resorted to desperate measures as the end appeared to be in sight for them.
She trained pilots in the Japanese Air Force for suicide missions of crashing their planes loaded with explosives on any Allied targets they saw, especially warships.
They were the equivalent of today’s suicide bombers.
Today, such is the fury and ferocity of driving on the Accra-Tema Motorway! Unfortunately, this dangerous driving appears to be only the tip of the iceberg of dangerous driving in Ghana.
As for the commercial motorbike riders called ‘okada’, weaving through traffic dangerously without helmets and going through red lights with impunity appears to be their stock in trade.
What surprises me is that policemen at traffic lights have accepted such misbehaviour by motor riders as normal.
Indiscipline
Many years ago, I took my driving test in a car with the Manual or Stick-shift gears.
Before then, my driving instructor told me, “If you do not drive in the correct gears, the vehicle will drive you by stalling on you and stopping.”
I was also taught Defensive Driving and Road Courtesy.
Today, modern technology has replaced manual gear vehicles with automatic transmissions.
This has reduced driving to speeding hard and then jamming on the brakes for an instant stop!
Though I do not have statistics to support this, the observation is that some accidents have been caused and lives lost because the drivers were distracted while driving and phoning.
Way out
Elsewhere, driving offences are punishable by an increase in insurance premiums for the offender.
Where it persists, the offending driver has their driving license revoked.
Indeed, at the time of writing on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, the BBC announced the imposition of an $80,000 fine on Ivorian football star Yahaya Toure for driving under the influence of alcohol. Additionally, he has been banned from driving for 18 months.
Again, very fast buses meant for ambulances in advanced countries, on decommissioning, are imported into Ghana and metal seats are welded in them to play the role of passenger vehicles!
In the event of an accident, the welded metals kill innocent passengers. DVLA, why do you register decommissioned ambulances brought to Ghana as passenger vehicles? Please ban them to save lives.
Summary
In my 2024 article titled, I am scared of my own driving, I stated as follows.
“The mid-year report published by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) stated that between January and June 2024, there were 6653 accidents reported, mainly attributable to driver indiscipline.
There were 8798 casualties, comprising 1237 deaths and 7561 injuries.
In August 2021, two MPs were involved in road traffic accidents.
Showing no sympathy whatsoever, some Ghanaians angrily stated rather uncharitably that it was a travesty of justice that they survived, considering how little those in authority care about the thousands of Ghanaians who die annually in RTAs.
No wonder Ghanaians are disappointed with uncaring authorities! Remember John Dryden’s quote, “Beware the fury of a patient man!”
Discussion
While “DV” number plates stand for “Defective Vehicle,” “DP” stands for “Drive from Port.”
They are meant for temporary use only. So, how come they are a permanent feature at weddings these days?
Again, why do they speed, overtaking every vehicle in sight? Ghana Police, please enforce our road traffic regulations to save lives!
Initially, I disagreed with my AA-driving instructor in 1974 in Canada when he told us, “Drive with the notion that you are the only sensible driver on the road.
Assume every other driver is stupid! Therefore, you must not only think for yourself, but also think for them.”
It did not take me long to fully agree with him. Indeed, if we all drove with common sense, there would be fewer accidents!
Need I say more?
Leadership, lead by example/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chairman, Family Health University, Accra.
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com
