A research by the John Hopkins International Injury Research Unit has found drivers in Ghana are three times more likely to speed on weekends as compared to weekdays.

This came up during the Bloomberg Road Safety workshop in Kumasi.

The research which took place between November 2020 and May 2022 in Kumasi sought to observe risk factors such as speeding as well as use of helmet, seat belt and child restraint.

It was conducted through roadside observations.

In all, four rounds of speed observations were made.

The research revealed that the speed limit in Kumasi is 50 km per hour irrespective of the road type. This is higher than the global recommendation of 30km/h.

Again, the research revealed that speeding was 50 times more common on roads with partially controlled access to pedestrians, compared with roads with full access to pedestrians.

The Principal Investigator, Ing. Francis Afukaar of the Building and Road Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-BRRI) believes this presents risks of road traffic injuries to pedestrians.

“There are some localities we should reduce the speed limit to to 30 km per hour because there are schools and hospitals there,” he said.

The research was funded by Bloomberg philanthropies Initiative for Global Safety.