Road accidents on the rise with 2,330 lives lost in 2011

Accra, Jan. 30, GNA – The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service has said about 2,330 people died through road accidents in 2011 as against 1,760 recorded in 2010.

Available statistics indicates that out of 13,572 road accidents recorded last year, 13,272 people received injuries from 1,729 fatal cases, as against 11,147 receiving injuries in 2010.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Angwubotoge Awuni, Commanding Officer of MTTU, who said this in an interview with the GNA in Accra on Monday, added that the number of vehicles involved in accidents increased from 18,589 in 2010 to 19,530 in 2011.

ACP Awuni said the current trend of accidents on the country’s roads was alarming and it was crucial for the Unit and other stakeholders to step up efforts to help keep the situation under control adding that “the breakdown clearly indicates that things are not going on well on our roads and highways and that much is required from the various road safety stakeholders such as Ministry of Roads and Highways, Department of Urban Roads, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and the National Road Safety Commission”.

He told the GNA that the increase in road fatalities is a major concern to the Unit and urged police personnel to extend their duties into the night shift as most accidents occurred during that period adding that “personnel on such night duties should be properly armed for their security and I believe by creating appropriate teams for night patrols, we will be able to reduce the carnage if not completely eliminate them from our roads and highways."

The MTTU Commander said “there are no vehicles at some MTTU stations, no speed radar guns, no alcohol sensors, digital or camcorders to record scenes for evidential purposes and sometimes no computers for our word processing and accident data collections”.

He appealed to organisations and other corporate bodies to emulate the example of some companies who had offered assistance to the Unit to ensure maximum road safety in the country.