Road accidents in Ghana and their impact on the economy

It is reported that nine(the UEW later said their students were four) students of the University of Education, Winneba died while several others were injured after they were involved in a car accident on Sunday, the 13th of March, 2021.

A Hyundai Universe commercial bus is said to be the bus involved in the accident which occurred at Asuboi, a suburb of Suhum on the Accra-Kumasi highway. On that same Sunday, a 40-year-old man is reported to have died in an accident while on his way to his wedding reception at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region.

The accident occurred after the marriage ceremony itself had taken place earlier in the morning of Sunday. The Ghana Police after visiting the accident scene reported that the groom who was driving a Ford vehicle lost control and veered off his lane landing into a ditch.

These current road accidents have added to the worrying and an increasing spate of road accidents in Ghana. According to the National Road Safety Authority(NRSA), there were 232 deaths recorded from road crashes in January 2022 alone. These deaths we were told by the NRSA involved 179 males and 53 females with 34 of them being below the age of 18 and 198, above 18 years.

The NRSA also added that there were 1,237 road crash injuries captured in January 2022. Out of the number of crashes recorded in January 2022, 707 of them were commercial vehicles whilst in January 2021, 747 of the crashes involving commercial vehicles. Before this, a report by the National Road Safety Authority did indicate that there were 2,100 road accident-related deaths from January to September 2021, up from 2,080 in December 2020.

A 2020 statistics from the NRSA indicated that, Ghana, as of the end of August 2020, had recorded 9,205 road crashes. This involved 15,459 vehicles, resulting in 1,585 deaths. Also, in 2019 alone, a total of 2,284 people were said to have died of road accidents. The NRSA statistics indicated that Ghana’s least fatal year for road crashes in the last decade was in 2015 when 1,802 people died.

Within the last 28 years, more than 46,000 Ghanaians have been killed in road accidents nationwide. We cannot however keep count of the number of deaths and injuries sustained by people through road traffic accidents that have gone unreported and unrecorded. It would not be surprising if the unreported and unrecorded road traffic accidents far outnumber the officially reported and recorded ones.

This worrying trend of many road accidents resulting in many deaths and fatal injuries is something we must collectively take a serious look at. Road accidents are today claiming more lives than any other sickness or disease in Ghana. It is a bigger threat to our socio-economic development than the coronavirus pandemic. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic accidents affecting young and productive age is reported globally as the second cause of death followed by HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.

Some major causes of road accidents in Ghana

The rampant nature of road accidents in Ghana has made Ghanaians seem unconcerned about the deadly carnage. That should not be the case because the effects of road accidents on our lives and our economy are innumerable. Several road safety campaigns have failed to yield significant positive results as road accidents keep on increasing. There are some major causes of road accidents in Ghana which include poor driving skills and indiscipline. These causes lead to fatal injuries and deaths.

It is common knowledge that most drivers in Ghana do enjoy over-speed. Many drivers do not follow the speed limit. They like to drive above the speed limit and overtake vehicles ahead of them. This over-speeding makes it easy for them to get involved in a car accident. Almost every Ghanaian driver knows the risks involved in over-speeding but they always ignore the danger. According to the Ejisu District MTTD commander, ASP Francis Mireku, the very recent unfortunate death of a groom returning from a wedding in Ejisu to Kumasi was as a result of the deceased's over-speeding. A national road safety report of 2007 indicated that at least six people are killed daily in over-speeding-related Road accidents.

Closely linked to the over-speeding is the indiscipline on our roads. There is so much indiscipline in the system. Whilst some drivers always overload, some others also get drunk whilst driving. These drunk drivers always lose focus and end up endangering their own lives, the lives of their passengers and innocent road users. Drivers:

1. Driving under the influence of alcohol and some cannabis,

2. Knowingly overloading vehicles (especially commercial drivers);

3. Blatant disregard of the road code,

4. Bribing of enforcement personnel (in cases of traffic infringement), road rage, unlicensed drivers and Over-speeding, are some of the indiscipline actions of the driver that cause road accidents. It is sad that the driver of the bus which unfortunately caused the death of the nine UEW students is said to have failed to observe traffic regulations because he was allegedly sleeping. (The Ghana Police should always be on the lookout for such drivers).

A third major cause is the bad nature of our roads. A lot of our roads are not in good shape and thus putting drivers in difficult situations. Drivers sometimes try to avoid/dodge potholes only to end up in an accident. In the major roads that deserve to be dual-carriage ones, we, unfortunately, find them to be single carriage roads. These roads sometimes lack speed rams and working zebra crossings.

The worse of the situation is when these roads lack adequate traffic lights and footbridges and also have faded road markings and poor road signs. It is sad that major roads linking our various regional capitals are single carriage roads. The worse of them obviously is the one linking the Upper West Region to the Upper East Region. The Wa to Bolga road passing through Jeffisi and Tumu is so bad that it is bordered on its sides by bushes and at some points, deep pits.

Additionally, the poor state of vehicles on our roads and also the lack of maintenance of vehicles plying our roads, especially long vehicles is another major cause of road accidents. Very often, we find long faulty vehicles being left in the middle of the road without being towed and without the drivers putting the visible warning triangles.

In fact, there is generally a lack of maintenance culture among most car owners(be it long vehicles or small cars) in Ghana and this has resulted in many road accidents in the country. Most cars that ply our roads day in-day out either have faulty brakes, worn-out tires, broken windscreens or broken driving mirrors.

Finally, we can also talk about the attitude of passengers on commercial cars or buses. In a 2019 GhanaWeb story, some commercial bus drivers blamed the increasing spate of road accidents on passengers due to the incessant pressure passengers give to them whilst they are driving. According to the drivers, passengers often bombard them with insults when they fail to speed to their satisfaction.

In doing the bid of the passengers, the drivers drive on top speed to avoid all sorts of insults and name-calling. The drivers claim that passengers hate it when a different car bypasses their car and so they will be exerting unnecessary pressure on the drivers and questioning why they cannot speed. Comments like, “the car is too slow”, “can’t you speed, we’ve sat in the car for too long”, “why haven’t we reached our destination yet” are very common for passengers.

Effects of road accidents on the economy

According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), about 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among people aged between 15 and 29 years. 90% of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries(Ghana inclusive), even though these countries have approximately 54% of the world's vehicles. Nearly half of those dying on the world’s roads are “vulnerable road users”: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product. Without sustained action, road traffic crashes are predicted to become the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.

Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to individuals, their families, and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment as well as lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work or school to care for the injured. Of worry though is that Road accidents seem to increase with the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in lower-income countries (including Ghana) and decrease with GDP per capita in wealthy countries.

According to the NRSA, Ghana loses over $230 million annually due to road crashes. This is a huge amount of money that could have solved so many teething problems the country is battling to solve.

Globally the economic impact of road accidents is relatively huge. It is estimated that US $518 billion is spent globally on Road accidents. The annual costs of road traffic crash in low-income and middle-income countries are estimated to be between US$65-100 billion, more than the total annual amount received in development aid (UN, 2008).

Road accidents are a worrying social problem for countries across the World. In fact, the overall damage of road accidents can never be estimated because it does not only include cost of treatment and material damages but affects a wide spectrum of the economy. Thus, countries all over the World are finding effective solutions to some of the challenges undermining road safety activities.

Way Forward

A lot has been written on the subject of road accidents and its devastating effects. Many workshops and seminars have been organized but yet the problem continues to increase. As a country, we need to take concrete steps to get a lasting solution to this canker.

We need to do more to enforce road traffic laws on seatbelts, drink-driving, speeding, motorcycle helmet, and reckless driving. The law enforcement agencies are so relaxed on enforcing the laws and through that innocent lives are continuously being lost or maimed. The Motor Traffic and Transport Department must also ensure that the traffic laws are enforced without any favor or discrimination.

They must ensure that every professional driver must have some basic literacy and must also have the skills and knowledge before they qualify for a driving license. The MTTD and the road safety team must intensify their inspection of drivers’ licenses and roadworthiness of vehicles since some unskilled drivers drive with other people’s licenses. The road-safety authority should also regularly have a mid-term review of the road condition to reduce the occurrence of disastrous road accidents.

Secondly, the government has to introduce new traffic laws to prosecute reckless drivers and reduce road traffic accidents in the country. The high rate of road accidents in Ghana would be reduced drastically if rogue drivers are penalized severely. To give an example, in July 2019, when the Ghana Police Service together with Citi TV launched a campaign against road traffic offenders, it help reduce the road traffic offenses in Accra.

The “War Against Indiscipline” driving (WAI), involved the Ghana Police Service deploying some of its officers whilst reporters from Citi TV also monitor motorists on the roads. Since July 2019, many drivers have been arrested on live TV for violating various road traffic regulations in Accra. Just within 2 days of the commencement of the operation, the state amassed over GH¢100,000 in fines from the prosecution of some 500 drivers for various infractions.

Additionally, the government must continue to improve the quality of our roads, especially in congested urban areas as this is going to help us reduce the level of carnage on our roads. The design of roads can have a considerable impact on their safety. Ideally, roads should be designed keeping in mind the safety of all road users. This would mean making sure that there are adequate facilities for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

Measures such as footpaths, cycling lanes, safe crossing points, and other traffic calming measures can be critical to reducing the risk of injury among these road users.

Moreso, drivers must examine their cars before driving them. There is an ineffective public transportation system in Ghana and this makes the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sectors that are structurally embedded in driver exploitation.

Furthermore, the government has to re-introduce the towing levy. With the towing levy, the government would tow faulty vehicles designated areas where the car owners would have to come and pay before their cars would be released to them. DVLA and the road safety team should be made to present a number where any concerned road user would call upon spotting a faulty vehicle on the road to be towed. This will save a lot of lives and also generate revenue for the state.

It is important to note that like most problems in Ghana, our biggest challenge in solving the problem of road traffic accidents is attitudinal. All drivers know what is expected of them but they will still do the contrary. We need to intensify education on how to prevent road accidents concentrating more on the drivers being responsible. Drivers always fail to follow the road signs and that always gives us problems. Drivers need to be careful with the traffic rules, road conditions, mobile phones, etc. In this regard, religious leaders can be involved in the drive to educate and sensitize the public on road safety regulations.

Passengers on public and commercial transport systems must also be bold to always alert and plead with the driver to slow down when he is over-speeding. A lot of passengers mostly sit in the bus unconcerned whilst the driver does what he likes with their lives.

It is essential for Ghanaians to note that road traffic accidents can turn children into orphans and wipe out an entire family, so we all have to be very careful while driving. It is a truism that drivers are the main cause of road accidents because they have the responsibility to control the vehicle properly at the time of driving. However, pedestrians also have a responsibility to cross the road carefully.