The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says between January and December 2021, the country recorded a total of 15,972 road crashes resulting in injuries to 13,048 persons, while 2,924 persons lost their lives.
The Ashanti region recorded the second highest number of 3,740 road crashes with 2,864 injuries and 606 deaths between the same periods.
Mrs Mavis Obiri-Yeboah, Director General of NRSA who made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi, mentioned abandoned faulty vehicles on the roads, indiscipline by pedestrians, roads without streetlights, and poor nature of the roads as some of the contributory factors to the road carnage.
Nevertheless, Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said the NRSA and the Police would not relent on their efforts to clamp-down on recalcitrant road users and ensure they faced the law.
This, she said, could be achieved if all stakeholders got on board to deal with the problem which had now become a burden not only on the government but individuals and families.
She noted that disrespect for traffic regulations, especially by motorcycle riders and drivers was the main cause of accidents and their subsequent fatalities on the roads. In addition, over speeding, overloading, drunk driving, and the use of worn-out tyres were some of the causes of road accidents.
These, she said, have been aggravated by the fact that some drivers drove without license and did not wear seat belts, while motor riders went without helmets. She stressed the need for strengthened collective efforts by all stakeholders to ensure sanity on the country’s roads this year.
Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said sustained discipline and adherence to road safety regulations should be the prime concern of all if the country wanted to reverse its current tragic records on the roads.
She cautioned road users, especially drivers to follow traffic regulations, since this year, the Authority was strictly going to enforce the law to help reduce the number of road crashes.
GNA