Road crashes, deaths reduce first half of 2023
The number of persons killed in road crashes for the first half of this year has reduced by 214 or 16 per cent compared to the same period last year.
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Statistics from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) revealed that all other indicators reduced by an average of 11 per cent, except injuries which reduced by 2.5 per cent.
In all, 1,086 people died out of 6,904 reported cases of road crashes from January to June this year, compared with the 1,300 deaths in 7,687 crashes within the same period last year.
The number of injuries also reduced to 7,807 this year from the 8,007 recorded last year.
The statistics also showed that vehicles involved in road crashes reduced from 13, 248 in the first half of 2022 to 11,763 this year.
For pedestrian knockdowns, the records showed that 1,205 persons were involved in the crashes compared with 1,356 last year.
Collective responsibility
The Director-General of the NRSA, David Osafo Adonteng, however, told the Daily Graphic that although the reduction in the road crash indicators was "great news", all stakeholders needed to work together to further bring it down.
He said it would take collective responsibility by all stakeholders and a positive attitude by all members of the public to ensure that road crashes, injuries and deaths reduced drastically.
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Mr Adonteng commended stakeholders such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service and the media for playing key roles in law enforcement and public education, leading to the improvement in the road safety situation in the country.
He said the NRSA would intensify all initiatives that it had rolled out to help curb the carnage on the road, especially the “Stay Alive” campaign.
He urged drivers to prioritise the lives of passengers on board their vehicles by strictly obeying road traffic regulations and ensuring that their vehicles were in a good condition.
Details of crashes
Meanwhile, a further look at the statistics showed that between January and June, this year, private vehicles constituted the largest proportion of vehicles involved in crashes, representing 46 per cent.
This was followed by commercial vehicles with 32 per cent and motorcycles with the least proportion of 22 per cent.
It also showed that the proportions of all the vehicle types involved in crashes, that is, commercial, private and motorcycles, decreased by 15.02 per cent, 7.53 per cent and 6.95 per cent respectively, when compared to the same period last year (2022).
In terms of the regional distribution of crashes and fatalities in absolute terms, the statistics revealed that the Greater Accra Region contributed the most to crashes (2,886) and fatalities (231) respectively.
This was followed by Ashanti Region with 1,619 crashes and 194 deaths.
The statistics also showed that although the Eastern Region came third in the number of crashes, with 711 crashes, it came second in fatalities with 196 deaths.
Also, the Upper East, Bono East and Western regions had increases in deaths from January to June, 2023 with 75 per cent, 20.3 per cent and 14.8 per cent, respectively when compared to the same period of 2022.
North East Region recorded no change and the remaining regions had decreases, with Oti Region recording the highest percentage decrease of 60 per cent.