More persons died in traffic accidents between February 2022 and February 2023, 2,589, according to data made public by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), than died from the coronavirus in Ghana.

According to the data’s age and gender distribution, 196 males under the age of 18 perished, accounting for 8% of all fatalities. 130 females under the age of 18 died, or 5%. 1921 males over the age of 18 died in road accidents between February 2022 and February 2023, accounting for 74% of the deaths, while 342 girls over the age of 18 died, representing 13%.

As the nation reported its first instance of the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in March 2020, the number of fatalities from road accidents exceeded that of the people who perished in that pandemic three years prior. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), Ghana had 1,462 Covid-19 deaths as of February 21, 2023.

Statistics from the NRSA show that 27% of all cars involved in road accidents—or 6,450 accidents—were business vehicles. A total of 9,017 accidents involving private automobiles (30%) and 171 incidents involving motorbikes (43% of motor crashes) occurred. This amounts to 21,151 vehicles overall involved in traffic accidents in a single year.

The current leading group in Ghana working to guarantee national road safety is called NRSA. It has a road safety strategy that is partially sponsored and is funded through the national budget. The agency’s responsibilities include coordinating legislation, monitoring programs, and evaluating road safety efforts. Between 2011 and 2020, the nation wants to reduce both deadly and non-fatal road accidents by 50%.

However in Ghana, traffic accidents continue to be a major problem for public health and development. Automobile accidents are one of the top 10 causes of death in the country, according to statistics from the National Road Safety Authority, and they cost the economy 1.6% of its yearly gross domestic product.

The West African Regional Director of CUTS International, Appiah Kusi Adomako, suggested that the issue of road safety should be treated as a public health hazard because doing so would enable Parliament to approve more funding for road safety interventions. He was speaking at a Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Forum on Road Safety in Accra in October 2022.

Head of Operations of the Ghana Police Service’s Motor Traffic and Transport Directorate, Chief Superintendent Dr. Samuel Sasu-Mensah, also observed that the primary contributors to road accidents in the nation were drunk driving and speeding. The recent spike in traffic-related fatalities and injuries has sparked calls for a stricter road carnage policy.

The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has put plans into place to lessen road accidents through the Remain Alive Campaign to encourage motorists to adhere to traffic laws in the interim.

In order to assist law enforcement and allied agencies in reducing accidents and other safety-related issues in the nation, the Authority has assigned the short code 194 as an extra toll-free number.