Some 1,700 vehicles were involved in road crashes in January this year.
Out of the number, 723 were commercial vehicles, 715 private vehicles and 336 motorcycles.
In January 2017, 1,440 crashes were recorded.
At a news conference in Accra last Tuesday, the Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, said 1,774 vehicle crashes claimed 65 lives and resulted in the knockdown of 253 pedestrians.
The commission, she said, considered the trend of road crashes as unacceptable, especially occurring just after the Christmas and New Year festivities when the NRSC scaled up public education on road safety.
Contributory factors
Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said preliminary investigations conducted by the NRSC had established that negligence and disregard for road traffic regulations on the part of drivers were mostly responsible for the road crashes.
She said deficiencies associated with road infrastructure were also a contributory factor to the crashes.
“The absence of road signs, roadway makings, street lighting and safe crossing facilities for pedestrians are issues that continue to find space in the list of crash contributory factors,” she stated.
Agency status
For his part, the Board Chairman of the NRSC, Rev. Ismaila Hansmittson Awudu, said the NRSC was seeking to upgrade itself to an agency status to empower it to demand safety from institutions and organisations such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads and the Department of Feeder Roads and sanction them for non-compliance.
For instance, he said, the commission was not happy with the unsafe situation on the George Walker Bush Highway, particularly at Abeka Lapaz, and also at Pokuase, Amasaman and on the Tetteh Quarshie-Madina-Adenta road where pedestrians were always seen competing with speeding vehicules, resulting in knockdowns and deaths.
On behalf of the MTTD, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Alexander Kweku Obeng said the police would get tough on offenders of road regulations.
“We are going to look out for the bad lots on the roads, investigate and prosecute them. There will be no mercy when road users break the law. The indiscipline on our roads is too much,” he said.
Background
Provisional data on the 2017 road traffic situation showed that 12,843 cases of road traffic crashes were recorded, resulting in 12,166 injuries and 2, 076 deaths.
Out of the total number of deaths recorded, 1,562 were males and 514 females.
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