A total of 1,300 persons lost their lives through road crashes between January and June 2022, a Road Traffic Crash and Casualty Situation Report from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) has said.
The report said 7,997 persons sustained various degrees of injuries, with a total of 1,356 pedestrians knocked downs within the same period.
A total of 7,687 crashes were reported from January to June 2022, involving 13,248 vehicles.
Comparing the period of January to June 2022, to the same period last year, saw a 6.12 per cent decrease in the number of cases reported and a 5.19 per cent decrease in vehicles involved in the crashes.
There was a 7.76 per cent decrease in the number of pedestrian knocked downs this year, with the number of persons killed experiencing a 10.59 per cent reduction.
The number of persons injured this year, January to June, also decreased by 2.33 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
Out of the total number of vehicles involved in road crashes from January to June 2022, 4,619 were commercial vehicles; 5,862 were private vehicles, with 2,767 of them being motorcycles.
The above figures should immediately be a matter of urgent concern to all policy makers and managers in Ghana.
To begin with, the economic and social cost of losing 1300 human beings, would surely be colossal.
Secondly, the stress caused by 7,997 injuries on our health system should be comparable to any war situation anywhere in the world, even to figures in Russia and Ukraine, where the biggest war on the planet today is taking place.
Thirdly, the economic cost of 13, 248 vehicles either condemned or seriously damaged, should run into the hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis, if not millions. These vehicles would be replaced and repaired, putting further pressure on the cedi to forex exchange rate. The second aspect of this calamity is that this is also an economic loss for Ghana’s economy, that is, this is money that the nation has lost.
Once again, the Daily Searchlight must lament at what seems to be official lack of care and interest in what is happening on our roads. We believe that the political leaders are simply waiting for the next worthy person to be slaughtered on the highway, before we hear more noises on attempts to prevent the carnage.
We believe that the time to act is now; before we lose somebody that the nation can ill-afford to lose.
