Accidents: We don’t expect over 1,300 deaths in 2017 – NRSC

The Project Coordinator of the National Road Safety Commission, (NRSC), Henry Asomaning, has stated that the commission is projecting to reduce deaths from road accidents by 600 in 2017.

Mr. Asomaning’s claims come on the back of three different accidents in Apam in the Central region and Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region that claimed 19 lives in total.

As of the end of November 2016, Ghana had recorded a total of 11,378 road crashes countrywide involving 17,746 vehicles, of which the total number of casualties stood at 12,154 comprising 1,990 deaths and 10,154 injuries.

Mrs. May Obiri Yeboah, the Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission, at a press briefing in Accra, said the figures, compared with those recorded during the same period in 2015 involving the total number of reported cases- vehicles, injuries and fatalities- showed increases of 14.88 per cent, 14.45 per cent, 33.74 per cent and 20.19 per cent respectively.

Speaking in an interview on Morning Starr Monday, Mr. Asomaning told host Francis Abban that the NRSC will soon implement the spot fine which will help check road user behavior.

He added that passengers must also help to reduce the road carnage by reporting drivers who drive recklessly.

“If a driver is not driving well, you have the right to talk to him as a passenger… a driver who is speeding can be reported at the next security check point,” Mr. Asomaning said.

Mr. Asomaning added that “this year, we want to reduce road accidents to about 1,300. We are working with a strategy which we believe will work.”