By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has identified the Ashanti Region as the epicenter of road crashes in Ghana, at least over the last four and a half years.
Data gathered by the Authority reveal that from 2020 to 2024, the region recorded a total of 17,680 road crashes, resulting in the deaths of 2,831 people.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Authority, Kwasi Agyenim Boateng, told journalists in Kumasi that between January and July this year alone, the region recorded 440 fatalities from 1,730 accidents, constituting 25.7 percent of the overall national road crashes.
Mr. Agyenim Boateng called for increased and consistent road safety education and enforcement of road safety regulations to address the canker.
He was speaking at a capacity-building workshop for selected journalists.
The capacity-building workshop was a follow-up to one organized about a year ago to help participating journalists better appreciate the state of road safety in the country and the Ashanti Region in particular, the major causes, impacts, and effects, and what stakeholders need to do to at least bring the problem to the barest minimum to guarantee safety for motorists, travelers, and other road users.
The one-day training, organized by the Legal Resources Centre in partnership with the Bloomberg Philanthropies for Global Road Safety Initiative, was for selected journalists from Kumasi.
The workshop involved the use of videos of real accident incidents, PowerPoint presentations, and data from multiple sources including the Building and Road Research Institute of the CSIR and the Ghana Police Service to emphasize the seriousness of the unsafe situation on Ghana’s roads.
The training focused on supporting advocacy interventions ahead of the review of the Road Traffic Regulation to allow for the commercialization of motorcycles and tricycles, with emphasis on helmet standardization and speed management.
The Programmes Officer of the Legal Resources Centre, Enock Jengre, explained that the training was also to empower the media to use their platforms to increase advocacy and public education, and to stimulate members of the public to intensify efforts to make road transportation safe for all.
The Communications Director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, Ghana, Mavis Obeng Mensah, urged journalists to shift the paradigm of media reportage from sensationalism to advocacy and solutions to public issues, especially road safety.
