ROAD accidents in the Ashanti Region claimed 75 lives in the first quarter of the year (January –March), the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) has said.
The police described the figure as very high, especially compared with last year’s number of 58.
The Regional Commander of MTTU, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Victor Abrokwa, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Kumasi, warned that the region could experience one of the biggest casualty rates ever from road accidents this year if the trend continued.
He said in order to avoid the unpleasant situation, the police and the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) were taking serious measures to curb the accidents.
“There was something seriously wrong with our drivers because most of these accidents were as a result of human errors,” DSP Abrokwa stressed.
Painting a very bad picture of the situation, he said as many as 469 accidents were recorded in the region within the first quarter of the year compared with 369 in 2008.
The MTTU regional commander said some drivers went behind the steering wheel drunk and asked, “What can you expect from such drivers?”
DSP Abrokwa said personnel from the MTTU were on the highways to enforce road safety regulations while the police were prosecuting offending drivers to serve as deterrent to others.
Between January and March, this year, 73 offending drivers were convicted by the courts and fined a total of GH¢4,386.
DSP Abrokwa said his outfit was adhering to the advice from the NRSC to undertake pre-departure checks at the lorry stations to ensure that drivers took off from the stations “clean”.
“If drivers take off without taking in alcohol and their vehicles are in good condition, accidents will be minimised,” he observed.
DSP Abrokwa urged passengers to be bold to draw the attention of speeding drivers to the dangers of their act.
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