Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam stretch... Riskiest road in Accra

A road safety report has ranked the George Walker Bush Highway segment of the National Road One (N1) as the riskiest in Accra.

The segment is the extension from the Tema-Accra Motorway at Tetteh Quarshie Interchange to Mallam Junction.

The 2021 Accra Road Safety Report also cited the Opeibia, Lapaz, North Dzorwulu, Kawukudi and Hansonic intersections as the top five fatal crash intersections in the capital.

The report, part of a global road safety initiative, also named distances between the Apenkwa overhead and Dimples Roundabout, Akweteyman to Lapaz, the Airport Junction to North Dzorwulu intersection, the Abeka Junction to Total Station (J.A. Kufuor Avenue), and the Hansonic to Kaneshie First Light as the top five fatal crash corridors in the city.

Overall, speeding increased from 50 per cent in 2021 to 51 per cent in 2022, indicating that speeding remains the main risk factor for severe road crashes.

The report was put together through the collaborative efforts of the National Road Safety Authority, the Ghana Police Service, the Accra Metropolitan Authority and other local city authorities with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is working to improve road safety globally; Vital Strategies and the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Elizabeth Sackey, launched the report in Accra yesterday.

Deaths

Vulnerable road users who are persons not in any vehicle, including pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists, accounted for about 80 per cent of all deaths resulting from road crashes in Accra, the report pointed out.

It said 99 persons out of the 123 people who died from road accidents in Accra in 2021 were the vulnerable road users, constituting 80 per cent of the road traffic deaths in 2021, although the figure declined by nine per cent, from 136 in 2020 to 123 in 2021.

The number of reported fatalities, according to the study, dropped by 10 per cent from 2020 to 2021 even though overall crashes increased by two per cent in the same period.

Pedestrians constituted 58 per cent of the reported deaths, while persons aged between 20 and 29 were among the highest number of deaths and serious injuries recorded that year.

Additionally, reported road traffic crashes in Accra rose by two per cent from 1,774 in 2020 to 1,808 in 2021.

The study also revealed that more than half of the reported fatalities in 2021 occurred on weekends (Friday to Saturday) representing 53 per cent of the total figure.

The pattern, according to the report, had been consistent in the capital since 2016.

Double efforts

The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive CEO, who underscored the relevance of data in the fight against road crashes, commended the stakeholders for providing the first AMA city-specific road safety report, adding: “Without data, we are like blind and deaf people in the middle of a freeway”.

Mrs Sackey said although the city had recorded a slight decrease in deaths, more concerted effort was needed to ensure the city’s roads were safe for all users.

“This decrease must stir us up to double our efforts in our various interventions, leaning against the confidence that we can achieve so much by putting in more efforts.

“It is critical that all of us at the forefront of road safety stakeholder institutions redouble our efforts to ensure political commitment and responsibility for acting on road safety,” Mrs Sackey said.

She urged all the key road safety holder institutions to use the report effectively to guide interventions being undertaken towards ensuring safety on the country’s roads.

Commitment

Mrs Sackey explained that her outfit was committed to helping to reduce road crashes in the country.

In line with that, she noted that the AMA in December last year launched a speeding mass media campaign aimed at sensitising motorists to excess speeding.

Priority

A member of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health team, Becky Bavinger, said understanding data was crucial for policy formulation.

The report, she said, highlighted the need to prioritise the safety of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users who made up 80 per cent of people who died from road crashes.

She also emphasised the need to address the high speed on roads in the country and added that the roads were designed for the country’s real estate and not necessarily for cars.