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Eastern Region has been ranked the third most dangerous place to drive in Ghana.

The Region, which holds 16.1 percent to national road accidents, comes after Ashanti Region which contributes 20.7 percent and Greater Accra, 17.4 percent.

Mr Kwasi Yirenkyi, the Eastern Regional Roads Safety Director, said this at a National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) stakeholders’ meeting in Koforidua.

He said even though the Eastern Region has put in a lot of efforts to reduce facilities on the roads, the number of crashes and deaths recorded are still worrying.

“If you look at the data on how we performed from 2014 to 2015, we did a lot better than 2014, so the performance was good, but if you look at the number of people, who died in 2015 and compare it to the population of the Region, then it is not good”.

"If 229 people died on our roads and then 271 were knocked down, I wouldn’t call that a good situation...with 229 deaths we have a lot of work to do, we must bring down this figure drastically,” he said.

He blamed the situation on poor training of drivers and explained that, it is the responsibility of the transport unions to ensure that their members are trained in the basic principles of road safety.

He urged road users in the Region to always be on the alert, since the Eastern Region ranks among the top three most dangerous places to drive in the country.

On the way forward, Mr Kwasi Yirenkyi, said his outfit would intensify education at East Akyem and Birim Central Municipalities because those two areas have consistently been high spots of road carnage in the Region.