Deputy Minister of Transport Mr Titus-Glover and others after inspecting the car
BETWEEN January 2017 and April 2018, reportedly, Ghana recorded a total of 2,885 deaths as a result of road crashes.
Executive Chairperson of Shenkani Ghana Limited, Dr. Louise Carol Donkor, and Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, made this known on Tuesday in Accra at the press launch of the Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards 2018.
According to Dr. Carol Donkor, in 2017 alone, Ghana lost 2,076 daddies, girlfriends, uncles, boyfriends, mummies and daughters to road accidents.
In 2018, within the months of January and February, she said there were 336 lives lost from some 2,095 accidents.
According to her, we were all jolted by the sudden demise of the very talented Ebony Reigns a few months ago, and that got the nation talking about road safety again.
She continued, “Celebrity accidents, sad as they are, are only a tiny representation of the much bigger problem of road accidents.”
The Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards was accordingly created in partnership with the National Road Safety Commission to positively reinforce safe driving habits.
Dr. Carol Donkor indicated, “Drivers are, without dispute, the single most important element in road safety,” adding that we at Shenkani have decided to make the driver element in road safety our focus.
According to her, the awards seek to reward driving excellence as a way to promote road safety. He indicated that drivers would be rewarded for defensive driving, knowledge of driving regulations, compliance with driving regulations, driving skills and expertise, customer service, driving innovation,
Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, in a keynote address at the launch said road crashes remained a critical challenge to Ghana’s development.
He said, “Road accidents continue to account for nearly 2,000 deaths and 12,000 injuries annually. Available data suggests that about 70 per cent of crash victims are males and nearly 65 per cent of affected victims are within the productive age group of 16-45 years.”
“This year, as of the end of April, a total of 4,294 road traffic cases involving 7,066 vehicles have been reported, resulting in 809 deaths,” the minister revealed.
BY Melvin Tarlue