Scary Road Accident Statistics Revealed

RELIABLE INFORMATION available to DAILY HERITAGE from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) reveals that more than two thousands Ghanaians die annually through road accidents and its related issues. This phenomenon has rated road accidents as the number one killer in the country even more than the deadly HIV AIDS, Hepatitis B and Malaria commonly known as the number one killer in Africa. Out of the 2000 deaths, 42% of the incidents are involved with pedestrians assessing the road, while 23% of these pedestrians� deaths involve children below the ages of 16. Speaking at the just-ended training workshop for media personnel at the Koforidua Training Centre, the Assistant Planning Officer, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the National Road Safety Commission, Abraham Zaato said 60% of the accidents were caused by over speeding. He said available statistics reveal that over 70% of those who die were males and called on the female counterparts to advise their husbands, friends, family and children to be extra careful when accessing the road. Mr. Zaato added that, globally over 1.2 million people die each year with the average between 20 to 50 million people suffering injuries as a result of road accidents annually. Giving regional break downs of death cases, he said the Ashanti region tops the country chart with 20.8%, followed closely by the Eastern region with 15.8%, the Greater Accra region was third with 15.6%, Central region10.3%, while the two Upper regions East and West being 2.6% and 1.3% respectively. �In 2013, the Commission recorded 14,390 road crashes involving 22,208 vehicles killing 2,095 and injuring 12,655 peoples with a slight decrease compared with 2012 report,� he said. Mr. Zaato opined that the first quarter of 2014 recorded 3,621 accident cases involving 5,788 vehicles killing 147 people and injuring 3,432 people, while the same period in 2013 recorded 3,337 cases involving 5, 226 vehicles, killing 540 people and injuring 3,130.