Authorities in Kumasi work to mitigate road traffic deaths, injuries

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), have affirmed their resolve to bring on board key stakeholders in the campaign to reduce road crashes and related deaths.

According to the authorities of KATH, Ghana’s second-largest health referral facility, from 2015 to date, road traffic injuries constituted about 40 per cent of all the cases presented to the Accident and Emergency Unit annually.

“Our mortality data indicate that trauma-related injuries, and specifically, road traffic injuries, are the leading cause of deaths in the Unit,” Dr Daniel Osei-Kwame, the acting Head, Emergency Medicine Directorate, KATH, said.

Addressing the commemoration of the ‘World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims’, in Kumasi, he indicated that a large number of patients involved in road traffic accidents were pedestrians who were either knocked down by a vehicle or motorcycle riders who collided with other vehicles.

“Auto versus pedestrian accidents and auto versus motorcycle accidents are also the leading mechanisms of injury cases recorded at the Unit,” he said.

Dr Osei-Kwame bemoaned the devastating effects of road crashes, saying it “had torn many families and communities apart.”

“That is why this Day of Remembrance must be a call to action to stop these preventable deaths,” he advocated.

The programme was under the theme: “Remember, Support, Act”.

It was organized under the auspices of KMA with support from the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), as well as some local and international road safety advocates.

Mr Osei-Assibey-Antwi, the Mayor of Kumasi, said the KMA’s collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) was on course as they worked to ensure safety on the road.

The partnership is meant to prevent road crash injuries and fatalities to save lives through proven interventions.

These interventions, according to the Mayor, focused on four major risk factors - speeding, drink-driving, helmet, and seatbelt wearing, with speeding as the focal risk factor to be handled extensively.

Mr. Assibey-Antwi said BIGRS under the Partnership for Healthy Cities (PHC) and KMA Road Safety Project, had officially commenced a six-year support project to help bring to the barest minimum the incidence of road crashes and related deaths and injuries.

“To achieve this objective, the authorities would require multiple stakeholders, including those in the transport, health, and education sector, as well as the police, road users, and safety advocates,” he noted.

According to the Mayor, the key partners to offer technical and financial support in the implementation of the preventable accident strategies included the World Health Organization (WHO), Vital Strategies, and Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP).

The rest are World Resources Institute (WRI), Johns Hopkins University, International Injury Research, and County Level Partners.