Political Activities Highten Road Accidents-Study (page 19)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (Sat. March 1, 2008)
THE country’s annual average figure of about 1,600 road accident fatalities rose to 2,185 in 2004 as against, a situation attributed partly to political activities during the year.
Since 2008 is an election year, road safety officals are therefore, cautioning politicians and road users to be careful on the roads in order not to repeat the trend.
The Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Roads Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr David Osafo Adonteng, said during the year (2004), many people moved around within the country either to campaign or participate in political rallies, sometimes driving at high speed to beat time or driving for long distances without stopping to rest.
He also observed that many of the nation’s security agencies which helped in traffic regulations had to suspend those duties to either accompany political leaders on political tours or monitor political activities in other parts of the country.
At a meeting with two road safety officials from Lesotho to share Ghana’s experience in road safety campaign in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Adonteng said in that same year, a total of 12,164 road traffic accidents occurred in the country compared to 10,644 accidents in 2003 and 11,305 in 2005.
Statistics on distribution of road fatalities by age for between 2000 and 2006 indicated that 23.5 per cent of deaths were people aged between 26 and 35 followed by those between 16 and 25 years, who constituted 18.0 per cent. The lowest is those aged more that 65 years who constituted 4.8 per cent of the fatalities.
Mr Adonteng also said more men died in road traffic accidents than women, citing the 2004 figures where he said 1,568 men died as against 587 women.
He explained that women were considered more careful on the road and also the fact that not many of them drove long distances, which brought about fatigue, which caused accidents.
On regional basis, Ashanti Region topped the chart with 22 per cent, followed by Eastern Region with 17 per cent, Greater Accra Region, 14 per cent, Central Region, 11 per cent, Brong Ahafo Region, 10 per cent, Volta Region, eight per cent, Western Region, eight per cent, Northern Region six per cent, Upper East Region, three per cent and the least affected, which is the Upper West Region, recorded one per cent.
He pointed out that the economic loss to the nation due to those accidents was 1.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which was about US$100 billion.
He attributed accidents on the roads to unsafe driving, which included impatience, recklessness and irresponsibility, excessive loading, driving under the influence of alcohol high speed and fatigue on the part of drivers, deficiencies in vehicle fitness, insufficient enforcement of laws and disabled vehicles.
Briefing the officials from Lesotho, Mr Adonteng said in spite of those figures, Ghana was said to be doing well in road safety, adding that while Ghana recorded an average of 1,600 deaths in a year, South Africa recorded about 10,000 deaths.
He also stated that the national figures of 23 deaths per 10,000 vehicles had reduced to 22 deaths per 10,000 vehicles as against 43.1 in Tanzania.
He debunked the notion that Ghana was among the first three countries in the world which were affected by road accidents, adding that “we are not even among the first 50 countries”.
Mr Adonteng said the NRSC was working hard to reduce road traffic fatalities systematically on a yearly basis to a single digit by 2015 just as in Denmark, adding that the causes of between 50 per cent and 65 per cent accidents stemmed from attitude of drivers, which the commission was doing well to change through education and law enforcement.
He advised drivers to desist from using cellphones while driving, adding that “presently we are waiting to get the Legislative Instrument (LI) which prevents that and when we get it, offenders will not be spared”.
The two Lesotho road safety officials who visited the country for three days, were Mr Neo Khoaele, a senior instructor, and Ms Madrass Mojai, an information officer.