The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service’s report for July 2023 has disclosed that a 4.31 percent increase in road crashes.
The report documented 1,233 crashes involving 2,099 vehicles, resulting in 186 deaths and 1,328 injuries in 2023.
The figures for reported crashes, vehicles involved, persons killed, and persons injured rose by 4.31%, 5.42%, 30.07%, and 8.76% respectively.
Comparatively, July 2022 saw 1,182 crashes with 1,991 vehicles, causing 143 deaths and 1,221 injuries.
Pedestrian knockdowns declined from 224 to 213 in July 2023 compared to July 2022.
From January to July 2023, a total of 8,137 road traffic crashes were reported. These incidents encompassed 13,862 vehicles and resulted in 10,407 casualties, including 1,272 fatalities and 9,135 injuries.
In July 2023, 54% (670) of the crashes were minor, 33% (405) were severe, and 13% (158) were fatal out of the 1,233 total reported crashes. Likewise, from January to July 2023, 54% (4,364) were minor, 33% (2,713) were serious, and 13% (1,060) were fatal out of the 8,137 crashes.
Among the regions, nine out of sixteen experienced increased crashes. Notably, Upper East, Ahafo, Upper West, Volta, Central, Eastern, Bono, Western North, and Ashanti recorded crashes surging by 300%, 180%, 150%, 122.2%, 88.4%, 33.3%, 29.9%, 15.4%, 5.6%, and 3.5% respectively in July 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. North East remained unchanged, while the remaining regions reported declines. Savannah Region saw the most significant decrease by 90%.
Overall, July 2023 displayed growth in all major indicators except for Pedestrian Knockdowns. Conversely, January to July 2023 marked reductions in all key indicators compared to the same period in 2022.