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Opinions of Monday, 9 March 2020

Columnist: Charles Addai

Road accident in Ghana is deadlier than Coronavirus

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Road accident in Ghana is the scariest terminator than the Corona Virus. Day in and day out, accidents claim the lives of about six people on average. In January and February alone, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) recorded 222 deaths on our roads.

On 9th March 2020, 30 people were reported to have burnt to death on the Kitampo-Tamale road. By a simple analogy, about 400 people have died so far on our roads in Ghana. The figure is much higher than the number of people who have died of the coronavirus infection in Italy (366).

In the whole of China with about 1.3billion people, less than 3000 people have died of the corona Virus. So, road deaths in Ghana at the moment is about 13.6% of the corona viral deaths in China. This means that by the time the number of the corona viral deaths rises to 300,000 in China, about 41,000 people might have lost their lives on the deadly Ghana roads, assuming a linear correlation between the two different death data. In 2017, the NRSC recorded a total of 2,076 road fatalities in Ghana.

Therefore, our politicians and the journalists in Ghana must stop the empty jabbering about the coronavirus and look for ways to fix our basic problems. People in Ghana must fear the roads and insane driving than the coronavirus.

References: Road accident fatalities in 2020, [Online] Retrieved from http://www.nrsc.gov.gh/

[Accessed on 9.03.2020] Corona Virus, 366 deaths now confirmed in Italy [Online] Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51799956 [Accessed on 9.03.2020]

30 people burnt to death in Kintampo-Tamale road crash [Online] Retrieved from

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/30-people-burnt-to-death-in-Kintampo-Tamale-road-crash-888631 [Accessed on 9.03.2020]