Mahama preaches road safety ahead of Easter weekend

Former President John Mahama has been touring some major bus terminals in Accra to advocate for safe driving ahead of the Easter festivities.

Many Ghanaians are expected to commute by road ahead of the extended weekend which begins with Easter Friday.

A significant amount of the traffic will be heading towards Kwahu, via the Accra Kumasi Road, which, though not among the most dangerous roads in Ghana, has seen a fair amount of fatal road crashes.

The number of persons killed in road crashes rose from 2,076 in 2017 to 2,341 in 2018 and Mr. Mahama has said: “all of us must become ambassadors and advocates so that we are able to reduce the rate of accidents.”

He was speaking at the Tudu bus terminal in Accra where he urged Ghanaians to ensure that we had “an accident-free easter.”

“Easter is coming and a lot of people are going to travel. Some will be my relatives. Some will be your relatives. If we don’t advocate and help our drivers and all those who are involved in terms of transporting us safely to one destination or the other… then we will be reneging on our responsibilities.”

Within the last 28 years, about 46, 284 Ghanaians have been killed in road accidents nationwide.

The spate of road accidents prompted Cabinet to approve GHC1 billion for the implementation of major road safety reforms.

The amount will be used to put up road safety signs, re-paint defaced road markings and also fix the many faulty traffic lights on our roads.

An inter-ministerial Committee set up President Akufo-Addo in 2018 to investigate the cause of road carnage made these recommendations.

GHC6.5 million has also been allocated to the National Road Safety Commission (NSRC) for public sensitization and training.

The most dangerous highways

13 major highways in the country were assessed for road crashes within the 8-year period, and the top 7 selected by virtue of the frequency of road accidents on those stretches are as follows:

Accra – Cape Coast road – The stretch is 145 kilometres long via the N1 Highway. Within the 8-year period, there were 6,104 road crashes on that stretch with 7,465 casualties. This means that consistently for eight years, 2 people died or got injured in road crashes on that stretch every single day.

Aflao – Accra road – This stretch is 187 kilometres of the N1 highway and has recorded 3,919 road accidents in the year under review. 6,826 persons got injured or died from the incidents.

Tema – Hohoe road – 191 kilometres long. This stretch recorded 1,965 road crashes with 4,393 people being casualties. This makes it an average of 2 persons getting injured or dying from each reported accident on the stretch via the N2 highway.

Kumasi – Techiman – This is a 126-kilometre stretch using the N10 highway. In 8 years, 1,702 road crashes were officially recorded on this stretch. This resulted in 3,481 casualties, indicating that each accident left about 2 people dead or injured.

Kintampo – Tamale – 939 road crashes occurred on this stretch within the years under review via the N10 highway with 2,523 casualties. The stretch is 196 kilometres.

Takoradi – Elubo – The 130-kilometer road via the N1 highway has seen 839 road crashes within 8 years and 1,425 casualties as a result.

Tamale – Bolga – On this stretch, 780 motor accidents were recorded with 1,696 casualties. The stretch is located on the N10 highway and is approximately 160 kilometers long.

Other major roads assessed were, Techiman to Kintampo, Sunyani to Bamboi, Bamboi to Wa, Hohoe to Nkwanta and Nkwanta to Yendi, all of which recorded less than 550 road crashes and less than 1,200 casualties.

Source: citinewsroom.com