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AMA: Speeding identifies as major contributor to road crashes

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly road safety report has revealed that over speeding of posted limit in the capital has increased from sixty-eight (68) percent in 2018 to seventy-seven (77) as of April 2019 resulting in high rate of road traffic crashes.

Date Created : 10/8/2019 7:12:30 AM : Story Author : Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanadistricts.com

This came to light at the second AMA Road Safety Report launched in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).

Findings from the report which covered the period 2016 to 2018 also revealed that the number of reported road traffic accident in Accra dropped from one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven (1,697) in 2016 to one thousand two hundred and forty-eight (1,248) in 2017, before increasing sharply to one thousand eight hundred and twelve (1,812) in 2018.

Similarly, there was a drop in the number of road traffic serious injuries and death from 2016 to 2017, and a sharp increase by eight-nine (89) percent and fifty-one (51) percent respectively from 2017 to 2018.

The report which analyzed data from police crash reports, hospital records and observational surveys on road injury risk factors, showed that a high proportion of motorcycles eight-six (86) percent were observed speeding relative to other vehicle types followed by sports utility vehicles (SUVs) eight-three (83) and saloons seventy-eight (78) percent.

According to the Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah the key findings from the report should inform stakeholders in road safety to develop appropriate interventions and was hopeful that the efforts at the city-level would complement national efforts to improve road safety.

He announced at the launch of the report that AMA would embark on a mass media campaign and an enforcement drive on speeding in the coming weeks to help reduce speeding, above the posted limit in Accra.

The Accra Mayor pointed out that the economic and social consequences of road deaths, the cost of treatment and rehabilitation for severely injured casualties should be a major concern for city administrators, road safety agencies and health professionals.

He further called for attitudinal change among drivers towards speeding and advice strictly adherence to the road traffic regulations in order to reduce the rate of crashes and fatalities being recorded.

Dr. Raphael Awuah, Coordinator for AMA-BIGRS who presented the findings in the report indicated that in 2018, seventy-five (75) percent of males died in road crashes whiles twenty-two percent (22) were females.

“Global patterns show that males are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes than females, and this is what has been observed in Accra. About three quarters of all the road traffic deaths globally occur among young males who are three times as likely to be killed in a road traffic crash as females”, he said.

He further disclosed that a higher number of road traffic crashes in Accra were recorded between 2:00pm and 8:00am from 2016 to 2018, while a higher proportion of the deaths occurred between 6:00pm and 8:00pm compared to other times of the day.