Road carnage claimed 2,310 lives by November 2020, according to provisional data compiled by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.
The 11 months’ cumulative data remains higher than the total number of lives lost in 2019, which stood at 2,284, a difference of 28.
The tally for 2020 will be the highest figure for road deaths recorded in the past decade, even without figures for December 2020. With 2019 now setting the second highest figure, 2012 recorded the next highest number of road crash deaths (2,240) and 2015 recorded the fewest fatal crashes at 1,802.
The Ashanti Region recorded the most casualties (497), higher than the 2019 figure of 448.
As of November 2020, the Eastern Region had lost 341 lives, putting it third in the league table.
Greater Accra recorded 410 as against 449 recorded last year, with Accra alone recording 247 related deaths in the period under review.
The North East Region featured the fewest lives lost, with 12 recorded cases.
Okada menace
This year’s data covered all 16 regions of Ghana: Central recorded 221 deaths, Western 106, Volta 120, Northern 60, Upper West 52, Upper East 66, Bono 102, Bono East 129, Ahafo 62, Oti 30, Savannah 28 and Western North 74.
Crashes involving private cars recorded 9,050 deaths, commercial vehicles recorded 8,446 and motorbike or bicycle crashes caused 5,111 fatalities.
The report, covering January to November 2020, recorded collisions involving 22,607 vehicles in total, and in which 2,442 pedestrians were knocked down and 13,787 individuals injured.
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) estimates that the nation loses over US$230 million annually through road crashes. Within the past 28 years, more than 46,000 Ghanaians have been killed in road accidents nationwide, the Authority says.
According to the NRSA, distraction and overspeeding by drivers have remained the leading causes of road crashes in recent times.
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