A total of 517 persons died through road accidents between January and February this year, the Ghana Police Service has said.

This is a significant increase in the 393 cases recorded in the same period last year.

In all, 2560 road accident cases have been reported between these past two months involving 1581 commercial vehicles, 974 motorcycles, and 2766 pedestrians have been knocked down.

Of the total figure of road deaths recorded in the past two months, Ashanti Region recorded the highest with 108 deaths, followed by Eastern Region with 91 deaths, and Greater Accra Region with 89 deaths.

North East Region recorded the lowest number of deaths with two deaths.

According to the statistics released by the Service, the major accidents hotspots are on Buipe-Tamale road, Akyem Asafo, between the Accra-Tema motorway, Bolga-Navrongo road, as well as Kyekyewere and Mankessim.

Meanwhile, in March a number of road accident casualties have been reported.

The most recent one occurred yesterday on the outskirts of Sawla, where a Wa-Kumasi bound Sprinter Benz bus with registration number AS 3022-15 somersaulted and crashed into a nearby bush on the Sawla-Tuna-Kaiba District of the Savannah Region.

This incident has claimed 8 lives and has left 22 others in critical condition.

So far, the bodies of three persons have been identified by their families, which leaves 5 more waiting to be claimed at the Wa Hospital Mortuary.