The National Road Safety Commission has revealed that the use of motorcycles for both commercial and business purposes have caused a higher record of deaths than other means of transport.
According to Director of Planning and Programmes at the Commission, David Osafo Adonteng, over 500 motor accident deaths have been recorded from January to October this year.
This, he says, indicated that there is something wrong, and as such the Commission is collaborating with the Transport Ministry to embark on a national dialogue to review the existing law on the use of motorcycles.
He added that the dialogue seeks to ask Ghanaians if the use of motorcycles should be banned and commercialized.
“It has become very critical that we look specifically at the use of motorcycles generally. In looking at motorcycles we have noticed that based on statistics we are recording higher number in terms of people who die annually. It moved from 200 in a year since 2010 gradually to around 400. Currently, we are in October this year it’s not gone to December yet but we have recorded 589 deaths it clearly shows that there is something wrong. So our interrogation into the statistics has brought out the fact that because people are using for commercial purposes it is also swelling the figures,” he said.
He revealed that dialogue and consultation has already been done in the 16 regions and with other stakeholders to ensure that everyone’s opinion is considered.
As part of the consultation, the team met with some journalist and the Ghana Journalist Association to dialogue on the ways to solve the alarming rate of deaths caused by motorcycles in the country.
Mr Adonteng said the NRSC is putting in steps to review the law on motorcycles and stepping up education to the general public, especially as the Christmas season approaches, to reduce the rate of deaths in country.
He cautioned individuals who use motorcycles to ensure that they wear a helmet to reduce injuries and also urged motorists to obey traffic lights rules.
