A total of 242 lives were lost in road accidents in the Central Region in the year 2020 as against 183 recorded in 2019.

In all, 978 road crashes involving 679 commercial vehicles, 526 private vehicles, and 396 motorcycles were recorded in 2020 as against 902 in 2019, representing an increase of 8.4 percent.

One hundred and twenty-two (122) of the people who died were in commercial vehicles, 48 in private vehicles and 72 on motorcycles.

Regional Head of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ms Linda Affotey-Annang, revealed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Cape Coast.

She said 1,511 persons were injured with some of them being very serious as against 1,554 persons injured in 2019.

Of the total figure of crashes recorded, 499 of them were minor, 335 serious and 174 fatal.

Though pedestrian knock-down, which claimed 67 lives, reduced to 214 cases as against 242 of the previous year, Ms Affottey-Annag described it as ‘unacceptable’ saying, pedestrians were vulnerable road users who needed to be protected.

She expressed worry about the increasing statistics of accidents involving motorcycles and called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to bring the situation under control.

Taking stock of the year 2020, Ms Affottey-Annang, said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities in the Region undertook series of road safety educational campaigns concentrated at accident prone areas and in the communities.

This, she said paid off with the reduction in the number of road crashes and casualties recorded especially in the last quarter of 2020.

She also assured that the NRSA would continue to build institutional collaborations with stakeholders such as the DVLA, Police MTTD, GPRTU among others to ensure compliance of road safety regulations.

Additionally, the authority she noted intended to use road safety inspectors to ensure public compliance with best road safety practices while it continued with its advocacy role to foster behavioral change especially among drivers.

Ms Affotey-Annag called on all and sundry to play their respective roles, saying, “road safety was a shared responsibility.”