The National Road Safety Authority has express worries over the number of road traffic crashes recorded last weekend.
Over the weekend, four separate road crashes occurred in the Eastern, Oti, and Greater Accra regions led to 17 reported deaths with several cases of injuries among others.
The NSRA in a statement regrets the unfortunate incident.
According to the Authority, its preliminary investigations indicated that excessive speeding, wrongful overtaking, inattentiveness, disabled vehicles, and fatigue are the critical contributory factors to the crashes
recorded.
The National Road Safety Authority expresses its condolences to the families of the deceased
persons and wishes the injured a speedy recovery, adding that consistent with policy, the Authority has commissioned an investigation into the crashes.
“In the interim, the Authority is scaling up the ‘Stay Alive’ campaign for 2022 and the related media and outreach programs”.
“Further, Road Safety Inspectors have been deployed at major transport terminals to ensure compliance to road safety directives on two drivers per long-distance route and the use of vehicle logbooks, among others”.
“To complement these efforts, the Authority appeals to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for an increased presence of the police on high-risk corridors to help enforce traffic regulations, including excessive speeds by drivers”.
The Authority said they have also noted that, despite the frequent occurrence of road traffic crashes, its resultant injuries and death have declined by 3.7% and 9.2% respectively in January and February 2022 as compared to the same period in 2021.
However, the last few days have seen a rise in crashes which may not necessarily mean a rise in crashes or crises situation.
BY Daniel Bampoe