Road accidents claim 10 lives daily – Dr Ansong reveals

An orthopedic surgeon at the Tema General Hospital, Dr Francis Odei Ansong, has divulged that road crashes are killing more Ghanaians than the novel Corona Virus.

Contrary to statistics from the National Road Safety Authority’s website, Dr. Odei Ansong said the nation loses at least 10 lives every day as a result of road crashes. He expressed worry about the high rate of carnage on the roads.

“Before COVID-19, we were losing about 10 people a day. The road itself is more [dangerous] than Corona Virus…If you check the Road Safety Authority’s website, the figure there is six but the reality is that you get 10 people a day just dying”, he disclosed.

The Surgeon was speaking in an interview with Captain Smart on the Anopa Bofo morning show on Thursday, August 20, 2020.

Worrying injuries involving kids

The surgeon also told Captain Smart that a total of 475 children suffered different degrees of injuries just within the first half of the year as recorded by two health facilities in Accra.

Giving a breakdown of the figures, Dr. Ansong said reported cases of child injury to the Tema General Hospital alone were 178 for boys and 109 for girls aged between 0 and 18 years.

Additionally, 44 boys and 18 girls who don’t go to school were involved in some form of injury from road accidents.

He noted that Korle Bu Teaching Hospital recorded 188 cases too within the first half of 2020, with January to February alone seeing 58 cases.

“These [above statistics] are those who have reported to the hospital so you can just imagine those that go unreported perhaps due to the cost involved in managing the injuries”, he bemoaned.

Dr Francis Ansong further expressed willingness to educate the public, corporate organisations and schools about how to care for broken limbs in case of an accident.