Accident deaths decrease in Upper West Region

The total number of persons killed through various road crashes in the Upper West Region has decreased from 58 in 2019 to 54 in 2020 despite an increase in the total number of fatal cases from 43 to 49 respectively.

The road crash statistics from the Upper West Regional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service also indicated a decrease in the total number of persons injured from 287 in 2019 to 240 in 2020.

A total number of serious cases has also scaled up from 80 in 2019 to 89 cases in 2020 whilst the total number of minor cases also witnessed a jump from 31 to 48 respectively.

Pedestrian knockdown almost doubled from 17 in 2019 to 32 in 2020.

Meanwhile, there has also been a leap in the total number of cases from 154 in 2019 to 186 cases in 2020.

Again, the number of vehicles involved also galloped from 229 in 2019 to 295 in 2020, whilst the number of commercial vehicles saw a marginal increase respectively from 44 to 46 cases.

There is also a marginal increase in the number of private vehicles involved from 61 to 62 in 2019 and 2020 respectively whereas a total number of motorcycles involved correspondingly took a long jump from 124 to 187 cases.

Chief Inspector Gideon Ohene Boateng, the Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) identified human error as the major contributory factor to most of the accidents that occurred.

“If drivers will obey simple road traffic regulations, most of the accidents will be avoided and there will not be needless loss of lives and property,” he said.

Chief Inspector Boateng said as the police and other road safety agencies continue to sensitise the public on road traffic regulations, it also behoved on the public to learn to obey these regulations so that together they could reduce road crashes to the barest minimum, thereby protecting lives and property.