The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says the Urban Roads Department is solely to blame for the widespread malfunctioning traffic lights in the nation’s urban centers and the crashes that result from them.

Data available from the Authority indicates that 48 percent of traffic lights across Ghana are dysfunctional as of June 2022.

Greater Accra leads with 33 dysfunctioning traffic lights followed closely by the Ashanti Region with a count of 24. The rest are: Bono East-10, Western Region – 9, Bono -7, Volta Region -5, Eastern Region 3 and Upper East -3.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, the Director of Regulations, Impact, and Compliance at the National Road Safety Authority, Kwame Koduah Atuahene said the problem persists because the Department of Urban Roads has not demonstrated enough commitment to solving it.

He stated that efforts should be made to lessen the situation while lowering road fatalities.

He added that although no agency in the country has access to the needed funding, to carry out its functions, there is an urgent need to prioritise the issue of dysfunctional lights.

“If the accidents are happening in Accra, Kumasi, Eastern Region and we are all concerned about the numbers going down, and you may not be able to fix all the traffic lights in all 16 regions, at least we should see that some effort is being made to try to minimise the stress that we all go through using the roads… they haven’t shown us much passion and I say this with a lot of regrets,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the President of an NGO, Accident Victims Support Ghana, Reverend Cyril Crabbe wants the Department of Urban Roads to immediately deploy men to the various traffic intersections as schools reopen next week to prevent further carnage on our roads.

“We should think about the pedestrians, especially now that schools are about to be reopened .. we have seen many students dying at intersections because there are no traffic lights.”

He proposed the introduction of “road furniture” on the roads to ensure pedestrians safety.