causes of road accident in ghana essay

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Ghana Med J
v.54(3); 2020 Sep

Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences

The impact of road traffic injuries could be enormous, affecting societies and individuals in different facets. Despite the prominence of Covid-19 disease in the current public health space, road crashes remain an important contributor to mortality. It is estimated that some 1.4 million people die from road crashes globally, with most of these being the youth, and people from developing countries. 1 In Ghana, 72 persons out of every 100 000 population, suffered from grievous bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past decade. More than 60% of road traffic fatalities occured in children and young persons under 35 years of age. 2 Aside the mortality and morbidity associated with the road crashes, Ghanaian households spend an average of US$ 1687.65 in direct and indirect cost on severe injuries associated with road crashes, while many suffer considerable degrees of psychological distress. 3

The burden of road crashes in Ghana require a conscientious and multi-sectorial approach to reduce its occurrence and impact, while policies need strengthening and enforcing at all levels. The impact of RTAs may be mitigated by efficient emergency systems as well as policies which support care of victims. However, at the primary level, implementation of traffic rules and regulations is key, as discussions on road and vehicle safety are broadened. Road safety should be of concern to all stakeholders, as both motorists and pedestrians are at risk of the hazards of road crashes.

At the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, for instance, road traffic accidents accounted for 62% of deaths at the casualty unit of the emergency department. Interestingly, among the deaths caused by road crashes, 50% occurred in pedestrians, 31% in passengers and 18.7% occurred in motorists. It is worthy of note that among persons injured from road traffic crashes in this same study, 26% were related to motorbike accidents. 4 Road safety education is also a crucial element in the prevention strategies for road traffic accidents. At one local maxillofacial centre, majority of the injuries encountered (55%) were from road traffic accidents. 5 Management of these cases, often with limited resources, brings to the fore another dimension of concern for many healthcare professionals- the burden on the healthcare system and the families of the patients.

Despite the disease burden, there seem to be a relative dearth of research on road crashes in Ghana. In this issue of the Ghana Medical Journal, Poku et al report some instructive findings on factors associated with road crashes from drivers' perspective in the Kintampo North Municipality. Their findings indeed provide useful pointers to areas requiring some actions.

Providing evidence through research on the burden, regional distribution, health system factors, cost-effective interventions and policy effectiveness should stimulate various stakeholders to take up the challenge and help reduce this preventable and avoidable catastrophe.

Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public health Concern, And a Call For Action in Ghana, (and the Sub-Region).

November 2014
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine 4(11):822-828
4(11):822-828

National Health Service

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Contributing Factors to Road Accidents in Ghana

14 Pages Posted: 27 May 2020 Last revised: 10 Jan 2023

Nathaniel Gyimah

St. Joseph Senior High School

Date Written: April 29, 2020

Road accidents in Ghana are taking out the lives of innocent Ghanaians. The causes of this calamity are always different from one point of view to another. This research has been executed to provide expedient information on contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana. The research has made use of predecessors’ works on the causes of road accidents and their effects. Moreover, the study utilised a mixed/integrated approach to research mainly to produce unbiased information. A good collection of data was done through in-depth interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, convenience and simple random sampling techniques were used. Genuinely, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse the gathered information. The study engaged two hundred (200) respondents as a sample size that is 100 road safety stakeholders and 100 road users. Moreover, the major contributing factors to road accidents were identified as follows; poor nature of roads, carelessness of road users, faulty vehicles, stress, unskilled drivers, inadequate road signs, inefficient MTTU personnel, speeding, lack of education, drunkenness, and gross indiscipline. Other findings were; Drivers: rash driving, violation of rules, failure to understand signs, fatigue. Pedestrian: carelessness, illiteracy, crossing at wrong places moving on the carriageway, Jaywalkers. Passengers: Projecting their body outside the vehicle, by talking to drivers. Vehicles: failure of brakes or steering, tyre burst, insufficient headlights, overloading, projecting loads. Road conditions: potholes, damaged road, eroded road merging of rural roads with highways. Weather conditions: Fog, snow, heavy rainfall, wind storms, hail storms. Based on the findings, recommendations were stipulated under the following headings; Education, Provision of road signs, Enforcement of traffic and road safety regulations, Avoidance of attitudes/distractions leading to road accidents, Availability of logistics, Construction of good roads, Maintenance of roads and vehicles and Positive development.

Keywords: Contributing Factors, Road Accidents, Speeding, Drunk Driving, Distractions to Driver, Red Light Jumping, Safety Gears, and Seat Belts

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Nathaniel Gyimah (Contact Author)

St. joseph senior high school ( email ).

P.O. BOX 77 Sefwi Datano Sefwi Wiawso, Western North Region WY0003 Ghana WY0003 (Fax)

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Previous Issues
Volume 8, Issue 1 - 2023

Previous Issues Volume 8, Issue 1 - 2023

Contributing factors to road accidents in ghana.

Nathaniel Gyimah*

Department of Social Sciences, St. Joseph Senior High School, Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana

*Corresponding Author: Nathaniel Gyimah, Department of Social Sciences, St. Joseph Senior High School, Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana, Tel: +233249241021; Email: [email protected] .

Received Date: December 01, 2022

Published Date: Jaunary 06, 2023

Citation: Gyimah N. (2023). Contributing Factors to Road Accidents in Ghana. Mathews J Emergency Med. 8(1):48.

Copyrights: Gyimah N.©(2023).

Keywords: Contributing Factors, Road Accidents, Speeding, Drunk Driving, Distractions to Driver, Red Light Jumping, Safety Gears, Seat Belts.

ABBREVIATIONS

WHO: World Health Organisation; TSR: Traffic System Risk; RIC: Road Infrastructure Card; NRSC: National Road Safety Commission; GhIE: Ghana Institution of Engineers.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There have been significant improvements in all sectors of the country’s infrastructure, particularly in areas relating to roads and highways. Major road works could be seen all over the country and the rate of development has been sustained over a longer duration and supported with regular maintenance, reconstruction, and management, there is no doubt that the gains would be translated into long-term benefits [1].

In periods of high growth, it is very easy for engineers, designers, and planners of infrastructure to concentrate on meeting impending targets rather than taking a holistic approach to deliver what is appropriate, efficient and safe for long-term social and economic demands. The importance of road infrastructure for communities to function and generate effective economic growth cannot be overemphasised. Roads must, however, be designed and constructed to certain mandatory safety and functional standards for realistic life-cycle benefits to be accrued. Highway designers, therefore, have a professional and moral obligation to the safety of the different categories of road users: drivers, passengers, pedestrians, the disabled and include cart pullers and roadside hawkers, however, safety cannot be compromised for any reasons [1].

Incidentally, accident statistics of Ghana’s roads (number of casualties per ten thousand people) are not desirably ranked among the worst in the world. Although many factors contribute to road traffic accidents, there is little doubt that engineering and planning improvements can affect road-user behaviour in such a way that accidents are less likely to occur. In other words, safer roads and well-planned roadside environments (or implementation of road safety standards) reduce the likelihood and severity of accidents [1].

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) newsletter on road safety published in November 2003, road traffic injuries are a deadly scourge, taking the lives of 1.2 million men, women and children around the world each year. Hundreds of thousands more are injured on roads, some of whom become permanently disabled. Road traffic injuries involve issues of equity. They disproportionately affect the poor in developing countries, where the majority of road crash victims are vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, children, and passengers). Whilst road traffic accident rates are generally improving in high-income economies, many developing countries in Africa and Asia face a worsening situation (DETR, 1999). Injuries and disability resulting from road traffic crash put a significant strain on economies, typically consuming between 1 and 3 percent of a country’s gross national product per annum (UN, 2003).

Traveling on Ghana’s roads has become a nightmare as the country records more deaths from fatal road accidents. So far, over 230 people have died in Ghana in road accidents between January and February 2018 and 2,671 have experienced serious injuries, according to figures from the Road Safety Commission. As passengers blame drivers for speeding leading to fatal accidents, drivers are blaming the government for poor road construction, potholes, and other problems. The Accra-Kumasi highway, Accra–Aflao-Togo border, Accra-Cape Coast through to Takoradi and Kumasi–Techiman-Kintampo through to Tamale highways are noted as hotspots for road crashes in Ghana. In the Greater Accra region, the George Bush motorway alone has experienced 300 deaths as a result of road accidents since its construction in 2011, while the Tema motorway records over 200 deaths every year [2].

Road accidents occur for a variety of reasons. Often, drivers are distracted while behind the wheel, taking their focus away from the road. In other cases, drivers can become tired after spending multiple hours at the wheel, resulting in preventable errors. Sometimes, accidents occur for a combination of reasons, from bad visibility to unsafe road design, or other drivers lack caution. While the causes of accidents can vary, the consequences are often the same, resulting in everything from vehicular and property damage to serious injuries [3].

Furthermore, road accident is the most unwanted thing to happen to a road user, though they happen quite often. The most unfortunate thing is that people do not learn from mistakes on the road. Most of the road users are quite well aware of the general rules and safety measures while using roads but it is only the laxity on part of road users, which causes accidents and crashes. The main cause of accidents and crashes are due to human errors [4].

Statistically, the crash statistics in 2016 represent an increase of 15.6% and 6.77% in fatalities and serious injuries respectively but a reduction of 11.7% in crashes over the 2015 figures. For the third time running, the Traffic System Risk (TSR) index has hit the single-digit mark (9.24 fatalities/10,000 vehicles). There was an increase in fatal crashes by 7.6% in 2016, but at the regional level, the Greater Accra region recorded the highest percentage decrease of -22.1% in fatal crashes followed by the Upper West Region (-2.5%). All the remaining regions recorded increases in fatal crashes; Northern (34.9%), Volta (34.5%), Eastern (30.4%), Brong Ahafo (26.1%), Upper East (20.5%), Central (18.8%), Ashanti (11.3%) and Western (2.2%) [5].

Figure 1. Road traffic crash and casualty situation in 2016.

Road traffic crash and casualty situation in 2016.

Source: National Road Safety Commission, Statistics, 2018 [5].

Figure 2. Road traffic and casualty situation in 2015.

Road Traffic Crash and Casualty Situation.

In addition to the above, in 2016, the Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of fatalities, totalling 403 deaths which represented 19.3% of all fatalities in Ghana. This was followed by Greater Accra Region (367 deaths; 17.6%), Brong Ahafo (299 deaths; 14.3%), Eastern (293 deaths; 14.1%), and Central (213 deaths; 10.2%). These five regions together contributed over three-quarters (75.5%) of all the road traffic fatalities in Ghana. It is worthy to note that, for the first time in three years, the Ashanti Region has recorded the highest number of fatalities as it used to be Greater Accra which was the leading crash-prone region based on the number of persons killed in road crashes. The worsening traffic safety situation in the Ashanti Region may, in part be attributed to the relaxation of traffic enforcement, in recent times, on the main Accra-Kumasi highway [5].

The road user class with the highest share of fatalities continued to be pedestrians (824; 39.5%) followed by motorcycle users (437; 21%) and then bus occupants (364; 17.5%). The crash statistics show that the pedestrian fatality share once again fell below the 40% mark resulting in an annual reduction of -0.84% in pedestrian fatalities over the 2015 figure. This is in sharp contrast with the annual increase of 59.0% for bus occupants, 35.3% for motorcycle and 17.5% for car occupant fatalities. Safety measures for pedestrians should be sustained whiles those for bus occupants should be refocused and stepped up to stem the situation [5].

Moreover, motorcycle users also stood the greatest risk of death in traffic, registering the second-highest road traffic fatalities (21.0%) after pedestrians, thus overtaking fatalities among bus occupants (17.5%) and car occupants (10.7%). Though there was a drop of -9.3% in motorcycle fatalities in 2015, it increased by 35.3% in 2016. This calls for pragmatic measures to curb the rising rate of increase in motorcycle fatalities. Similar to 2015, approximately 60% of road traffic fatalities continued to occur on the non-urban sections of the road networks in 2016 while the remaining 40% were on the urban road networks. Compared to 2015, there was an increase in fatalities in both urban and non-urban road environments by 12.4% and 17.9% respectively. The impact of speed humps on fatality reductions on the highways needs further investigations. Until 2016, there has been a consistent decrease in road traffic fatalities on the non-urban sections of the road networks since the year 2012 [5].

Furthermore, the month of December recorded the highest monthly fatalities, for the third year running. Compared to the national population pattern, males (78.5%) are over-represented in road traffic fatalities, accounting for about 3.7 times those of females and that the 26-35 years age-group continued to be the modal age group in the fatality statistics [5].

Figure 3. Percentage change of 2015/2016 crash and casualty situation

Figure 4. Distribution of fatalities by road user class

Figure 5. Comparison of 2015/2016 crash and casualty situation.

Problem statement

Ghana’s highway network shows encouraging signs of improvement but some reconstruction is required to avert long periods of neglect. There is a huge potential to reduce the likelihood and severity of accidents through better design standards and maintenance. In Ghana, like many developing countries, the social and economic cost of road traffic accidents can be reduced by moderate investment in road safety audits and assessment. There have been efforts to introduce cutting-edge technology to facilitate pedestrian flow, especially within urban areas. However, the designs are disproportionately unfavourable to people with natural infirmities, including the elderly, kaya-kaya, cart pullers and roadside hawkers [1].

However, highways in Ghana are inadequately signposted, and road markings are sometimes non-existent over long stretches of highway. Where departures from acceptable standards have been adopted, provision of well-designed road signs and markings can significantly contribute to the safe and efficient operation of road networks. Inadequate road markings increase the chaos and accident potential on roads, particularly in areas where complex and conflicting maneuvers are permissible. Placement of advertising billboards appears unconstrained and consequently clutters the highway corridor and impacts on visibility to the detriment of road users. Many of the safety implications on Ghana’s roads are obvious, can be highlighted by independent safety auditing and assessment, and eliminated through the application of low-cost corrective measures. Given the substantial maintenance backlog of existing roads, it not considered acceptable to simply build new networks without rectifying deteriorated sections of existing roads and introducing countermeasures to get rid of safety hazards [1].

Factually, Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE) has expressed worry about the state of the road infrastructure in the country, especially their lifespan. Results from the Road Infrastructure Card (RIC), a process that assesses the quality and state of roads, indicates that roads in the country have been poorly built and deteriorate at a fast pace. The RIC, among other benchmarks, also monitors and tests if the appropriate materials were used to build the roads, the level of supervision, specifications, and design. Climate change is likely to damage transportation infrastructure through higher temperatures, severe storms and flooding, and higher storm surges. There is, therefore, the urgent need for the assessment of new viable road construction materials to improve road quality and utilise cost-effective maintenance techniques in the preservation of the road assets. Road accidents have become one of the leading causes of deaths in Ghana; Efforts by government to reduce road accidents have been coupled with road safety awareness and education, although it has helped in a way but has not helped totally to curb the menace because of the increasing occurrences the primary cause of these accidents is hidden. The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) announced that there were 19 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles in 2010. In 2011, 2,330 road accidents were bringing it to an average of 7 accidents per day across the country. In 2012, by November ending, 13,535 crashes have been recorded resulting in over 2,069 deaths in Ghana. In December 2012 alone, 246 people died and 1,260 were injured in car accidents. A car is first and foremost a mechanical vessel that operates in line with scientific principles. In a world of advanced technology and therefore causes of accidents can best be induced by engineering analysis. It is an undisputed fact that the vast majority of cars imported into this country are second hand with most of them being faulty due to the high-cost maintenance and repairs overseas. Interestingly enough, when they reach the shores of Ghana, they are handed over to mechanics known in the local parlance as “fitters” to undertake their repairs. These mechanics to the best of their knowledge and by improvising, try to fix these faults without the necessary precautions [6].

It is therefore important to bring to light the contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana and also consider useful recommendations to reduce the rate of accidents in Ghana.

Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study was to find out contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana. Specifically, the study would emphasise on;

Causes of road accidents in Ghana.
Effects of road accidents in Ghana.
Recommendations to curb road accidents in Ghana.

Research questions

The study has the following research questions:

What are the causes of road accidents in Ghana?
What are the effects of road accidents in Ghana?
What are the recommendations to curb road accidents in Ghana?

Significance of the study

The study has uncountable monumental which are not limited to the following;

Point of reference to expedient researchers who have the desire to research road safety.
Capture the attention of government on the rate road accidents are taking away the lives of innocent citizens who are also breadwinners of their families.
Prompt the ministry of roads and highways as a matter of urgency to bring sincere solutions to road accidents.
Educate road users about the causes, effects, and recommendations to curb road accidents.
Alert road stakeholders about the need to invent scientific-technological tools to foretell road users about impending and avoidable accidents.

Justification of the study

Indeed, road accidents have come to stay with humans whose causes are ramified and have kept on recurring anywhere, everywhere and anytime without replacement of the lives of lost souls. This calamity has to be viewed twice to get amicable solutions. Factually, people who are not qualified to get driving licenses manoeuvre in one way or the other to get them and in return cause road accidents. Drivers drive under the influence of alcohol which predominantly cause road accidents. The aforementioned contemplation boosted the researcher to venture into road accidents solely to find out the contributing factors, effects, and recommendations to curb the situation. This study stands to be exceptional because the researcher has attached fresh to it that is advising readers to collaborate with the recommendations to fight against road accidents in Ghana.

Road m arkings

Road markings consist of a series of coloured lines, arrows, patterns, and symbols, simple words (such as STOP, SLOW, TURN LEFT,) and other devices that are applied to, set into, or attached to a carriageway of a sealed road. Their main functions are to guide vehicles into definite positions on the carriageway, supplement the regulations and warnings of traffic signs and signals and indicate permissible turning manoeuvres. Road markings (edge lines, lane delineators and centre lines) encourage order on roads and separate opposing traffic thereby eliminating conflict. On multi-lane carriageways, lane discipline allows traffic to flow smoothly, minimise chaos and maximise the capacity of the road. Without the edge of road markings, wheel loads outside edge lines will accelerate carriageway deterioration. In many parts of the world including Britain, various road markings have a particular statutory meaning which road user is obliged to know. Road markings are also used to indicate a variety of parking, waiting and loading restrictions. In Britain for example, continuous longitudinal lines on the carriageway are used to discourage crossing and transverse lines are used to indicate stop lines. The resources required to install road markings are infinitesimal compared to the capital cost of road construction. Road markings are cheap ways of imparting information to drivers and other road users, yet long stretches of some sealed primary roads in Ghana have no road markings, the easiest, quickest and final activity in the road construction process [1].

Traffic c alming

This is a term used for the application of engineering and physical measures designed to control traffic speeds and encourage driver’s behaviour appropriate to the environment. Traffic calming uses specific measures to reduce and control vehicle speeds to a level commensurate with the activities taking place along a road. It can also encourage drivers to adopt a uniform speed without excessive acceleration or deceleration. Besides, traffic calming can be used to influence a driver’s behaviour towards non-motorised road users. The overall aim is to tame the motor vehicle so that its usage at particular locales is compatible with other forms of road users. A variety of measures can be used to influence the driver’s behaviour and perception. The essence of traffic calming, however, lies not in the use of specific measures but in the overall objective to create safer roads and better environmental conditions. In Ghana, the commonest form is the road hump sometimes called the sleeping policeman. Narrow road humps installed across roads in pairs of twos, threes or more such as those found in some areas in Ghana may be referred to as rumble strips. In developed countries, traffic calming is seldom used on roads with speed limits greater than 50 km/hour. Its use in Ghana on primary roads where speeds are relatively higher due to lack of resources and mechanisms to enforce speed regulations, especially on approaches to towns and villages, pedestrian crossings, schools are considered appropriate provided the strategic objectives of improving driver’s behaviour, concentration, awareness and reducing speeds are achieved. The sudden encounter of road humps is dangerous. It is not good for installing road humps without the necessary advanced warning as seen in some areas in Ghana. It has been found, for example, that the most effective traffic calming measures are generally those that are very conspicuous [1].

Pedestrian f acilities

Walking is the most frequently used mode of transport because it is involved in all modes of travel. Pedestrians encompass people of both sexes and all ages and socio-economic groupings. They include people of various degrees of physical fitness, including the elderly, the disabled or the mobility impaired. In Ghana, it is considered reasonable to define pedestrians to include cart pullers and the kaya-kaya man or woman (street porters). It is worth remembering that the majority of serious injury and fatal road accidents occur to pedestrians for obvious reasons. Pedestrian facilities in Ghana include footways, footbridges and pedestrian crossings. The commonest at-grade pedestrian crossings in Ghana are the zebra crossings where the pedestrian has legal priority over the motor vehicle. A motor vehicle must, therefore, give way to a pedestrian who steps onto a zebra crossing and this precedence continues while the pedestrian is on the carriageway. In Britain, zigzag, double yellow or double red lines substitute for edge and lane markings either side of pedestrian crossings. The relevant design standards encourage designers to incorporate high-friction surfacing approximately fifty metres in advance of pedestrian crossings to assist and minimise the risk of skidding during breaking, thus offering additional protection to users [1].

Traffic Signs

Road signs offer a medium for communicating with drivers to assist them in the driving task. Three principal types of signs can be identified according to their functions:

Regulatory signs; carry mandatory instructions which must by law be obeyed or prohibit certain manoeuvres respectively;
Warning signs; are usually advanced instructions which alert motorist to danger ahead;
Information signs; are intended to assist drivers in getting to their destination.

By convention, road signs need to be comprehensible to all including non-local or foreign drivers. Emphasis is therefore placed on the use of signs which communicate their messages by ideographic representations rather than by inscriptions. Road signing is an area in highways, traffic, and transportation engineering that is benefiting from advances in modern technology. New road signs being promoted in developed countries include variable message signs, in-vehicle information, and navigation systems, highway telematics, and many others and are based on satellite communication, video surveillance and global positioning systems. These are geared towards achieving a comprehensive intelligent transport system [1]. Road signing in Ghana is generally very basic and a complete overhaul of the system is essential as some of the discussions above already show. The only signs identifiable in Ghana within the highway corridor are probably the private advertising billboards, which may be illegal. Numbers of signs per stretch of road, typeface, size, colour, mounting height and design have not been regulated. These signs undermine the serenity of road space, are stressful in particular to the non-local drivers, and impact on the environment in the form of visual intrusion and obstruction [1].

The majority of highway culverts in Ghana have been built in concrete, with headwalls at both the upstream and downstream ends. These headwalls have structural concrete upstand abutting the running edge of the carriageway with workmanship generally beyond reproach. The structural headwalls stand in isolation, range in height from 450mm to 1000mm, and above the finished road level. Most highway design standards would recommend some protection for concrete obstructions close to the running edge, usually in the form of safety fencing to contain errant vehicles and avoid impact. These concrete structures are particularly dangerous on unlit urban and rural roads. The effect increases on bends, peaks, and troughs, and on unsealed roads where vehicles utilise wider road space to avoid deteriorated sections. In the absence of safety fencing, the most cost-effective way to downgrade the risk of impact is to coat the structures with high visibility reflective paint in vertical or horizontal stripes of contrasting colours (usually red, yellow or black stripes in white background). Concrete or stone-lined ditches either side of settlements along high-speed rural and urban roads have similar safety implications. This group of ditches could be lined with inexpensive marker posts or bollards with reflective bands to make them more conspicuous [1].

CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS

According to the Transport Department in Jharkhand, the following are causes of road accidents.

Most of the fatal accidents occur due to speeding. It is a natural psyche of humans to excel. If given a chance man is sure to achieve infinity in speed. Driving above the speed limit is a common practice for many motorists. It is also illegal behaviour that vastly increases the risk of losing control of a vehicle and causing an accident. The faster a vehicle travels, the longer it takes to slow down in the event of an obstacle. Even a small increase in speed can result in a much higher risk of being involved in a collision or other type of accident. As such, motorists need to be aware of the speed at which they are traveling and stay within the legal limits. An increase in speed multiplies the risk of accident and severity of the injury. Faster vehicles are more prone to accidents than slower ones. The higher the speed, the greater the risk. At high speed, the vehicle needs a greater distance to stop (braking distance). A slower vehicle comes to halt immediately while faster one takes a long way to stop and also skids a long distance due to the law of motion. A vehicle moving on high speed will have a greater impact during the crash and hence will cause more injuries. The ability to judge the forthcoming events also gets reduced while driving at a faster speed which causes error in judgment and finally a crash.

Drunk driving

Consumption of alcohol to celebrate any occasion is common. But when mixed with driving it turns celebration into a misfortune. Alcohol reduces concentration. It decreases the reaction time of a human body. Limbs take more to react to the instructions of the brain. It hampers vision due to dizziness. Alcohol dampens fear and incites humans to take risks. All these factors while driving cause accidents and many times it proves fatal. For every increase of 0.05 blood alcohol concentration, the risk of accident doubles. Apart from alcohol many drugs, medicines also affect the skills and concentration necessary for driving.

Distractions to d river

Though distraction while driving could be minor but it can cause major accidents. Distractions could be outside or inside the vehicle. The major distraction nowadays is talking on a mobile phone while driving. The act of talking on the phone occupies a major portion of the brain and the smaller part handles the driving skills. Drivers can become distracted behind the wheel for a variety of reasons. Some of the leading causes of distracted driving accidents include using a cell phone while driving, as well as eating food or drinking from a mug or bottle while behind the wheel. This division of brain hampers reaction time and ability of judgment. This becomes one of the reasons for crashes. Some of the distractions on the road are;

Adjusting mirrors while driving
Stereo/Radio in vehicle
Animals on the road

Red l ight j umping

It is a common sight at road intersections that vehicles cross without caring for the light. The main motive behind Red light jumping is saving time. The common conception is that stopping at the red signal is a wastage of time and fuel. Studies have shown that traffic signals followed properly by all drivers save time and commuters reach the destination safely and timely. A red-light jumper not only jeopardizes his life but also the safety of other road users. This act by one driver incites another driver to attempt it and finally causes chaos at the crossing. This chaos at the intersection is the main cause of traffic jams. Eventually, everybody gets late to their destinations. It has also been seen that the red-light jumper crosses the intersection with greater speed to avoid the crash but it hampers his ability to judge the ongoing traffic and quite often crashes.

Avoiding s afety g ears like s eat belts and h elmets

The use of a seat belt in four-wheeler is now mandatory and not wearing seat belt invites penalty, same in the case of helmets for two-wheeler drivers. Wearing seat belts and the helmet has been brought under law after proven studies that these two things reduce the severity of injury during accidents. Wearing seat belts and helmets doubles the chances of survival in a serious accident. Safety gears keep people intact and safe in case of accidents. Two-wheeler deaths have been drastically reduced after the use of helmet has been made mandatory.

Other causes of a ccidents r oads in Ghana

Drivers : Rash driving, violation of rules, failure to understand signs, fatigue, alcohol.

Pedestrian : Carelessness, illiteracy, crossing at wrong places moving on the carriageway, Jaywalkers.

Passengers : Projecting their body outside the vehicle, by talking to drivers, alighting and boarding vehicle from the wrong side traveling on footboards, catching a running bus, etc.

Vehicles : Failure of brakes or steering, tyre burst, insufficient headlights, overloading, projecting loads.

Road conditions : Potholes, damaged road, eroded road merging of rural roads with highways.

Weather conditions : Fog, snow, heavy rainfall, wind storms, hail storms.Poor roads prone to accidents in Ghana

Responsibly, two poor roads that are prone to accidents were selected from the previous ten (10) regions which are as follows;

A road that links Asankrangwa and Affiena: This road had been badly deteriorated and untarred from time immemorial. It is a very busy road that takes people in and out of Asankrangwa in the Wassa Amenfi West Municipal of Western Region. It is one of the roads in Wassa Amenfi West Municipal that transport foodstuffs to its environment. This road usually becomes flooded during the rainy season where road users at this time carry all heavy loads on their heads and sometimes people get dead due to the flooding. The road is one of the cocoa roads in Wassa Amenfi West Municipal but has become a death trap for road users. It is a road that can take off uncountable innocent road users' lives. Importantly, this road demands the attention of the government be reconstructed and provide bridges where necessary mainly to avoid future road accidents since such road is prone to accidents. Even though there is a contractor on the road but it has been proven futile.

Figure 6. Poor nature of road that links Asankrangwa and Affiena.

Source: Ayerakwa (2017) [7].

Asankrangwa–Sefwi Bekwai road: This is a road that links Wassa Amenfi West Municipal and Western North Region. It is also one of the roads used by many road users who transact in terms of business in Kumasi that is, it also links Wassa Amenfi West Municipal and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. The road is in its delipidated state which needs the attention of the government to renovate it purposely to prevent future road accidents.
Abuakwa–Bibiani road (Ashanti Region)
Adenta–Aburi road (Greater Accra Region)
Ajumako - Breman Asikuma road (Central Region)
Amasaman town road (Greater Accra Region)
Atronie - Akyerensua road (Bono Ahafo Region)
Dode Pepeso–Nkwanta road (Volta Region)
Dunkwa–Denkyire Asikuma road (Central Region)
Jasikan–Kadjebi road (Volta Region)
Kandiga–Sirigu road (Upper East Region)
Koforidua–Mamfe road (Eastern Region)
Konongo–Agogo road (Ashanti Region)
Navarongo–Pungu (Upper East Region)
Subi Junction–New Abirem road (Eastern Region)
Tamale–Salaga road (Northern Region)
Tepa Junction–Goaso road (Bono Ahafo Region)
Wa–Bulenga road (Upper West Region)
Wa–Nyoli–Sawla road (Upper West Region)
Yendi–Saboba road (Northern Region)

Roads spotted for accidents in Ghana

Some seven roads in Ghana have been marked as the most dangerous highways in the country due to the number of recorded road accidents on these roads. In 2018 alone, there were over 13,000 reported cases of road accidents across the country, with about 15,000 casualties including recorded death cases. According to the National Roads and Safety Commission report (2004-2011), 13 major highways in the country were assessed for road crashes within the 8 years. The seven (7) roads below were spotted for accidents based on statistics as published by GhanaWeb on Tuesday, 26 th March 2019 captioned as ‘’Seven most dangerous highways in Ghana’’;

Accra–Cape Coast : This road is 145 kilometres’ long via the N1 Highway. Within the 8 years, there were 6,104 road crashes on that stretch with 7,465 casualties. This means that consistently for eight years, 2 people died or got injured in road crashes on that stretch every single day.
Aflao–Accra : This road is 187 kilometre’s off the N1 highway and has recorded 3,919 road accidents in the year under review. 6,826 persons got injured or died from the incidents.
Tema–Hohoe : This is 191 kilometres’ long. This stretch recorded 1,965 road crashes with 4,393 people being casualties. This makes it an average of 2 persons getting injured or dying from each reported accident on the stretch via the N2 highway.
Kumasi–Techiman : This is a 126-kilometre stretch using the N10 highway. In 8 years, 1,702 road crashes were officially recorded on this stretch. This resulted in 3,481 casualties, indicating that each accident left about 2 people dead or injured.
Kintampo–Tamale : 939 road crashes occurred on this stretch within the years under review via the N10 highway with 2,523 casualties. The stretch is 196 kilometres.
Takorad i –Elubo : The 130-kilometre road via the N1 highway has seen 839 road crashes within 8 years and 1,425 casualties as a result.
Tamale–Bolga : On this stretch, 780 motor accidents were recorded with 1,696 casualties. The stretch is located on the N 10 highway and is approximately 160 kilometres long.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

The study focused on Ghana particularly road accidents by way of ascertaining the major contributing factors and their remedies. This research concentrated on both primary and secondary sources of data. Moreover, the study utilised a mixed/integrated approach to research mainly to produce unbiased information. A good collection of data was done through in-depth interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, convenience and simple random sampling techniques were used. Genuinely, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse the gathered information. The study involved one hundred (100) road safety stakeholders: ten (10) road safety stakeholders were engaged from each of the previous ten (10) regions. Likewise, ten (10) road users from each of the previous ten (10) regions added up to get one hundred (100) road users. In total, the study engaged two hundred (200) respondents as a sample size that is 100 road safety stakeholders and 100 road users. Factually, road safety stakeholders engaged in the study were; DVLA, Ghana Highways Authority, Ghana Police Service, National Ambulance Service, Ghana Red Cross Society, NADMO, Ghana Health Service, Local Government Service, GPRTU, Ghana National Fire Service, and Ghana Education Service. However, road users involved in the study were; drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and passengers.

Analysis and findings

Table 1. Sex of respondents.


Male	165	82.50%
Female	35	17.50%
Total	200	100%

Source: Field data (2020) [8].

Many males participated in the study which comes with 82.5% of the total number of participants involved in the study and the remaining 17.5% represented females. This shows that females are needed most in any phenomenon, this low participation on the part of females are everywhere in the world where females do not avail themselves to social activities such as meetings, and conferences. This calls for the massive participation of females in any activities since decision making is made and observed collectively.

Table 2. Breakdown of respondents according to ten (10) region.


Ashanti	20	10%
Bono Ahafo	20	10%
Central	20	10%
Eastern	20	10%
Greater Accra	20	10%
Northern	20	10%
Upper East	20	10%
Upper West	20	10%
Volta	20	10%
Western	20	10%
Total	200	100%

The in-depth interviews and questionnaires were administered on a regional basis where twenty (20) respondents (10%) were sorted from each of the previous ten (10) regions.

Table 3. Causes of road accidents.


Poor nature of roads	31	15.50%
Carelessness of road users	16	8%
Faulty vehicles	12	6%
Stress	18	9%
Unskilled drivers	29	14.50%
Inadequate road signs	10	5%
Inefficient MTTU personnel	11	5.50%
Speeding	28	14%
Lack of education	15	7.50%
Drunkenness	20	10%
Gross indiscipline	10	5%
Total	200	100%

Road accidents are predominantly caused by poor nature of roads as 31 participants stressed that representing 15.5% of the total participants. 16 respondents which represented 8% emphasised that road accidents are caused by the carelessness of road users. 12 respondents denoting 6% disclosed that road accidents are caused by faulty vehicles. 18 participants representing 9% made it known that stress sometimes causes accidents. 29 participants (14.5%) agitated that accidents are mostly happened by unskilled drivers who manage badly to get driving licenses. 10 respondents (5%) cleared the air that road accidents are caused by inadequate road signs which means some roads in Ghana do not have road signs, for example, a road that links Asankrangwa and Affiena (Wassa Amenfi West Municipal, Western Region). 11 participants (5.5%) aired that inefficient MTTU personnel has resulted in many road accidents. 28 (14%) respondents disclosed that speeding has brought road accidents to its peak. 15 participants (7.5%) alarmed that lack of education has also become a key contributor to road accidents. 20 respondents (10%) said that drunkenness has great involvement in road accidents as a lot of drivers drive under the influence of alcohol. 10 participants (5%) lamented that gross indiscipline has hidden say to road accidents. Inferentially, the causes of road accidents are dependent on the lamented causes reported by the respondents.

Table 4. Effects of road accidents.


Death	87	43.50%
Damage of property	19	9.5%
Injury	61	30.5%
Unnecessary expenses	11	5.50%
Negative economic impact	10	5%
Depopulation	7	3.50%
Business failure	5	2.50%
Total	200	100%

87 respondents (43.5%) alarmed that the major effect of road accidents is death which is inevitable but sometimes avoidable: They also lamented that their numerous family members were dead because of road accidents. 19 participants (9.5%) cleared the air that road accidents have resulted in many uncountable damages of property. 61 respondents (30.5%) said that injury has become another option apart from death: Many people have become disable due to road accidents. 11 participants 5.5%) aired that unnecessary expenses are also part of the effects of road accidents since expenses which are not budgeted become budgeted in the event of road accidents. 10 respondents (5%) disclosed that road accidents bring negative economic impact on the economy because economic gurus sometimes lose their lives in the course of road accidents. 7 participants (3.5%) said that road accident brings a reduction in the population since road accidents take off the lives of people daily, monthly and yearly. 5 respondents (2.5%) lamented that road accidents sometimes bring business failure in the sense that many people travel to a place for businesses so accidents which are occurred in this enclave result in business failure and sometimes, businessmen and women die out of road accidents. Implicational, all effects of road accidents are negative and uncountable people lose their lives, properties are damaged, people become disable, unnecessary expenses are made, business persons are also lost, towns become depopulated, and economic gurus are also dead or injured all because of road accidents [9,10].

It was known that the contributing factors to road accidents do not rest on a single entity but different factors come together to cause road accidents which are not limited to the following; poor nature of roads, carelessness of road users, faulty vehicles, stress, unskilled drivers, inadequate road signs, inefficient MTTU personnel, speeding, lack of education, drunkenness, and gross indiscipline.
Other contributing factors to road accidents were highlighted from the perspective of drivers, pedestrians, passengers, vehicles, road conditions, and weather conditions.
Another contributing factor was deficiency associated with road infrastructure.
It was realistically found that the direct effects of road accidents are; death, injury, damage of property, unnecessary expenses, business failure, negative economic impact, and depopulation.
It was also highlighted that there are myriad causes of road accidents but their effects are unwelcoming.
It was ascertained again that the main causes of road accidents are human errors.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations are presented under the following headings based on the findings gathered; Education, Provision of road signs, Enforcement of traffic and road safety regulations, Avoidance of attitudes/distractions leading to road accidents, Availability of logistics, Construction of good roads, Maintenance of roads and vehicles and Positive development.

Intensive education for road users. Not only on road signs but other precautionary measures.
Agency for road safety management should carry out education and sensitisation programmes across the country and constantly engaging stakeholders at all levels to take the necessary steps in their various endeavours to prevent human deaths and injuries on roads.
NGOs, religious bodies, traditional councils/leaders, professional bodies, musicians, captains of industry and the Media should discuss road safety at their various platforms since the fight against road accidents can only be fought and won collectively.
Proper road safety programmes are encouraged.
Carefulness on the part of the drivers is urged.
Resting periods are needed for drivers on a long journey.
One should use safety belts and gears of prescribed standards and tie them properly for optimum safety.

Provision of road signs

To ensure the safety of pedestrians, drivers need to be warned on approach to zebra crossings. Solid and conspicuous road markings are required on the carriageway approximately twenty metres either side of the crossing strip.
For traffic calming to be effective on high-speed roads, it must always be preceded by a speed reduction measure which may be in the form of warning signs indicating the road feature ahead.
As a matter of urgency, policy and decision-makers have to consider mounting well-designed directional signs to major landmarks such as universities, schools, and colleges, cultural centres, hospitals, hotels, cities, and towns.

Enforcement of traffic and road safety regulations

Strict compliance with existing road safety procedures, standards, and regulations are encouraged.
MTTU personnel should be effective and efficient.
Corporal punishment for speeding drivers is greatly needed.
Driving licenses should be given to competent drivers only.

Avoidance of attitudes/distractions leading to road accidents

Avoidance of speeding
Do not use your cell phone while driving
Concentrate, keep your eyes on the road while driving.
Never drink and drive.

Availability of logistics

There should be adequate devices to check speed.
There should be vehicles to transport MTTU personnel to checkpoints before, during and after road accidents.

Construction of good roads

Construction of good roads is encouraged to avoid future accidents especially a road that links Asankrangwa and Affiena in the Wassa Amenfi West Municipal of Western Region.
Engineers must take into consideration the avoidance of road accidents when designing roads.
Major roads must be dual carriage
Minor ones must be tarred
Building good roads with good demarcations

Maintenance of roads and vehicles

The government should renovate all damaged roads.
Repair of cars are encouraged to make them road wealthy

Positive development

Improvement of road safety laws is encouraged effectively.
The government should empower all road safety stakeholders (NRSC, DVLA) to invent scientific technologies on the roads mainly to alarm/foretell drivers, passengers, and pedestrians about avoidable accidents.
Kontoh A. (2004). Ghana’s Roads? Which Way? Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Ghana-s-Roads-Which-Way-54862 .
Koranteng KA. (2018). Ghana’s Deadly Roads. FairPlanet. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.fairplanet.org/story/ghanas-deadly-roads/ .
Accidents: Seven most dangerous Highways in Ghana. (2019). Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Accidents-Seven-most-dangerous-Highways-in-Ghana-733281 .
Causes of Road Accidents. Transport Department, Government of Jharkhand. (2020). Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: http://jhtransport.gov.in/causes-of-road-accidents.html .
National Road Safety Commission—Statistics. (2018). Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: http://www.nrsc.gov.gh/index.php/statistics .
Boamah SP. (2013). The hidden cause of road accidents and deaths. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-hidden-cause-of-road-accidents-and-deaths-282863 .
Ayerakwa P. (2017). A letter of appeal concerning flooding on Asankran Oda–Breman Road in the Asankrangwa District. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.modernghana.com/news/781708/a-letter-of-appeal-concerning-flooding-on-asankran.html .
Ohio University. (2020). A Civil Engineer’s Look at Roads and Highways. USA: Ohio University. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/a-civil-engineers-look-at-roads-and-highways/ .
Jamal H. (2016). Highway Engineering & Transportation Engineering Lecture Notes Course Contents. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.aboutcivil.org/highway-transportation-engineering-lectures-notes.html .
Yaw A. (2018). Engineers Lament Over The State Of Ghana’s Roads. Retrieved on 28 th March 2020 from: https://www.modernghana.com/news/849842/engineers-lament-over-the-state-of-ghanas-roads.html .
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Standard responses to road accidents haven’t worked in Ghana: here are some alternatives

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Urban Development, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

Disclosure statement

Festival Godwin Boateng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Road traffic accidents remain a major public health and development challenge in Ghana . They are among the top 10 causes of deaths , draining 2.54% of its gross domestic product annually. Some recent reports suggest that between January and July 2021, about 8 deaths and 43 injuries were recorded daily on Ghana’s roads .

The recent surge in road deaths and injuries has ignited demands for a sharper policy focus on road carnage. The conversation, however, appears to be heavily oriented towards doing more of the existing control measures. These are the so-called 3Es: education; enforcement and engineering.

The contemporary science or best practice in road safety management is shifting towards an understanding of the wider societal factors that might impact road safety. It is also about the exploitation of these factors in interventions. This major shift, however, remains inadequately considered in the current search for solutions to make Ghana’s roads safer.

Read more: Why fines and jail time won't change the behaviour of Ghana's minibus drivers

Fixing ‘bad’ drivers is not enough

I set out to explore why Ghana cannot arrest or educate its way out of its road traffic malaise. I argue that the present public policy of hunting for rogue drivers to make roads safer is akin to killing mosquitoes one by one to control malaria. The problem with it, as noted elsewhere , is that the mosquitoes could still keep coming. The best remedy is to drain the swamp that breeds them.

Consider, the troubling issue of drunk driving, for instance, which many a Ghanaian insists could be simply resolved through more arrests, prosecutions and longer prison sentences. A recent study on behavioural influences on driver crash risks in Ghana reported that commercial drivers, forced by poor working conditions to drive for long hours often resort to alcohol and other similar substances to ‘stay alert’.

Undoubtedly, increased policing and imprisonment could help identify and remove some of these drivers from the roads. But that alone will not resolve the precarious working conditions and job insecurities that incentivise inappropriate use of alcohol and other substances as coping mechanisms.

The result of this, as shown elsewhere , is that while some drug and alcohol-affected drivers will be arrested and punished, impact will be minimal. This is because little is done to tackle wider societal influences of their misuse and addiction.

Clearly, fixing the worrying impact of alcohol and other substance abuses on road safety outcomes in Ghana will require thinking beyond the present traditional domains of safety education, and the highly preferred law enforcement-heavy measure of declaring ‘ wars ’ on drivers.

Second, the 3Es often narrow policy options to fixing the behaviour of the usual suspects – drivers and the road environment. The problem with this is that other key actors, processes and practices that also heavily influence safety outcomes are seldom considered.

For instance, from a prevention point of view, does it also matter who fixes or repairs the cars drivers operate? Does it matter who trains them and the nature of the training that gives them power to make quality assurance judgements on vehicles that carry people?

There is also the well-documented exploitation in the commercial passenger transport sector. This solicits and compels unhealthy driving practices from drivers to make as many trips as possible to raise revenue to settle high sales targets set by car owners, cover operational and other costs including police bribes.

The 3Es afford little opportunity to learn from these and other sets of socially organised circumstances that produce harmful driving practices and adverse road safety outcomes in the country.

Moreover, however troubling road trauma is, resource constraints will mean that not all potential solutions can be funded or be meaningfully implemented. Other problems in the country also demand policy resources. This raises the need for careful investment in interventions with the potential to help solve, at the same time, a multiple number of the longstanding problems that continue to resist current interventions.

I show that wider societal level interventions that go beyond the traditional 3Es could yield such outcomes in Ghana. Consider prioritising investment in efficient public transport such as rail and big buses, for instance.

The evidence in countries like Japan suggest that, these transportation options, together with the promotion of non-motorised forms of non-commercial transport such as bicycles, have the potential to reduce meaningfully heavy reliance on private cars – which dominate road traffic crashes in Ghana .

Presently, it is estimated that, together with taxis, private cars occupy more than half of Ghana’s road space . Cutting down the use of private cars through improved public transport systems could yield widespread sustainable safety outcomes. Reducing the number of private cars on the roads means reducing the number of private car-related crashes, injuries and deaths. Also, since private cars occupy a chunk of the road space, reducing their use will significantly bring down the traffic congestion in the cities.

This could result in reducing fatigue born out of long driving resulting from ‘go slows’ (gridlocks). Some evidence has emerged that part of the reason Ghana suffers several highway crash injuries and deaths is that drivers in the country often resort to aggressive driving practices such as over speeding and reckless overtaking to make up for lost time in traffic when they get to the highways.

Reducing private car use, and to that end, traffic congestion through improved public transport could yield positive outcomes on the highways in terms of reduced incidents of reckless overtaking and speeding.

Importantly, reducing heavy dependence on private cars comes with great environmental and climate gains such as reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Read more: Ghana's road traffic problems have deep and spreading roots

Time to reorganise cities and society

A more fundamental issue is the present land-use patterns and ways of organising the Ghanaian society that solicit and compel unnecessary travelling in the country. The result is that many people are put in harm’s way to travel from their places of residence to submit ‘documents’ , attend ‘meetings’ or conduct petty businesses in Accra and the other cities in which public and other businesses have been centralised.

Mixed-town planning land-use patterns must be encouraged and investments made in technology to cut down unnecessary travel and reduce exposure to crashes.

Clearly, great opportunities exist for reducing road traffic miseries in Ghana that the intent focus on just the 3Es obscures. Road safety education; road traffic regulation enforcement and road engineering are truly important; their impacts are tangible. It, however, may be time to think beyond them.

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ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS TREND IN GHANA: CAUSING FACTORS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Road traffic accidents (RTA) in developing countries such as Ghana have been identified as one of the major causes of death. It has been classified as the second major cause of death apart from malaria and hence urgent attention is needed to curb this menace. This study was carried out to analyze RTA trends, identify causing factors and propose preventive measures. In the study, primary data was obtained from a survey conducted by randomly administering structured questionnaires to 150 drivers and pedestrians. While secondary data was gathered from RTA records for the past 10 years (2005-2014) obtained from the National Road Safety Commission of Ghana. The key findings from the study show that there is an increase in RTA cases for the past 10 years with population growth through the correlation and regression analyses. The regression model indicates clear positive faster increase in RTA trend with population growth in Ghana. In addition, the regional distribution also shows significant differences in RTA cases. The results from the survey indicated that over speeding, over loading and disregard to road signs or regulations are the first-three main RTA causing factors in Ghana with emphasis on safety education as the main preventive measure.

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Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public Health Concern, and a Call for Action in Ghana, (and the Sub-Region)

Published 13 November 2014
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Road traffic accidents in ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences, paa kwesi blankson, margaret lartey.

The impact of road traffic injuries could be enormous, affecting societies and individuals in different facets. Despite the prominence of Covid-19 disease in the current public health space, road crashes remain an important contributor to mortality. It is estimated that some 1.4 million people die from road crashes globally, with most of these being the youth, and people from developing countries.1 In Ghana, 72 persons out of every 100 000 population, suffered from grievous bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past decade. More than 60% of road traffic fatalities occured in children and young persons under 35 years of age.2 Aside the mortality and morbidity associated with the road crashes, Ghanaian households spend an average of US$ 1687.65 in direct and indirect cost on severe injuries associated with road crashes, while many suffer considerable degrees of psychological distress.

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Causes Of Road Accidents In Ghana

Concerns have been expressed both on the electronic and print media over the recent spate of road accidents in the country. What is disturbing and disheartening is the fact that the accidents seem to be unending as fresh reports are made almost every day. In all such fatal accidents precious lives are lost, not to count the cost on the economy of Ghana.

It is against this background that, I write to discuss the causes and effects of road accidents in the country and also attempt at suggesting solutions to this national canker.

In my humble and candid opinion, the numerous accidents in the country can be summed up in two thematic factors. These are human and mechanical. Of the two, there is no doubt that the human factor outweighs the mechanical. Since the consequences of both factors have equal repercussions on their victims, they should be discussed thoroughly.

In the first place, in respect to the human factor, most drivers who are involved in fatal road accidents get drunk before they embark on their journeys. Such drunken drivers have poor sense of judgment. As a result they drive recklessly. They care less about road signs and so overtake other vehicles where they are not supposed to do so. This invariably ends in fatal road accidents.er

Notwithstanding, some illiterate drivers are also blamable. They do not understand road signs, let alone interpret them. They do not know when and where to overtake other drivers. Their inability to comprehend road signs breeds accidents. i.e leads to head on collisions. When such accidents occur the vehicles catch fire killing almost every passenger on board (RIP to the Kintampo victims).

Road accidents can also be attributed to over-speeding by drivers. The country experiences a lot of fatal accidents during occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and New Year. Because people travel home on such occasions to meet and reunite with relatives and friends. The drivers, taking advantage of the numerous passengers, drive at top speed in order that they will make more money. Meanwhile, the end results of over-speeding are fatal accidents for we should always remember that “over-speeding kills”.

The other factor which is mechanical also accounts for fatality in road accidents. The fact that some over aged vehicles are allowed to ply our roads is a serious issue. Certain parts of such vehicles break down on the roads resulting in accidents. This, if not curtail will continue to cause fatal accidents on our roads.

However, these accidents have damning consequences on the citizenry. Relative to this, the human resource base is reduced which in the long run affects productivity because some skilled workers are lost as it happened on the Tamale-Kintampo road recently.

In conclusion, I would like to suggest that the police should ensure that only road-worthy vehicles are allow to operate on our roads and in-service training given to the drivers. If these safety precautions are followed, fatal accidents will be reduced drastically.

Thank you. David Alhassan MBA Student, University of Cape Coast. Ghana

This Author has 2 publications here on modernghana.com Column: David Alhassan

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

There are enough blame to go around for all these deadly vehicular accidents in Ghana. Well, there are your bad roads with poor road signs. Your have your share of very bad drivers. There are those very poorly maintained vehicles plying your poor roads. Law enforcement on the roads are compromised and corrupt. Citizens show ignorance of road safety rules or don't even bother paying any attention to it.

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Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences

Affiliations.

1 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital [email protected].
2 Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, University of Ghana Medical School [email protected].
PMID: 33883755
PMCID: PMC8042801
DOI: 10.4314/gmj.v54i3.1

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Causes of road accident in Ghana

Nowadays, road accidents are a common thing; every day people witness mild and sometimes grotesque road accidents. There are many factors that lead to innumerable causes of road accidents in Ghana. The major causes of road accidents in Ghana are poor driving skills and indiscipline. These causes lead to injuries and can sometimes be fatal. We would like to make you knowledgeable about the major causes of road accidents which shall help you to undertake preventive measures against such incidents.

causes of road accident, causes of road accidents, accidents on the road

Although there are many road safety campaigns, there is little or no effect on the rate of road accidents as it is increasing day by day. As per surveys, most of the road accidents in Ghana are due to motor vehicles. Statistics show that 60% of road accidents are caused due to drivers under the influence of alcohol as well as over speeding. However, bad condition of the road, poor maintenance of vehicles, disregard of traffic regulations by most of the drivers, and use of mobile phones while driving are the other causes of road accidents in Ghana. If you are looking for information regarding the main causes of accidents in Ghana for taking necessary safety measures then go through this article.

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Main causes of road accident

There are a number of causes of road accidents which should be seriously considered . Here, we have depicted the major causes of road accidents:

Poor driving skills is the first major cause of road accidents
Drivers using mobile phone while driving has caused several road accidents.
Most of the accidents are caused by the break down of vehicles on the road.
Indiscipline is yet another cause of road accident in Ghana
Over-loading of vehicles
50% of road accidents happen due to over-speeding
10% of a road accident in Ghana are caused due to drunk driving.
Most of the drivers do not follow traffic regulations. This also leads to accidents on the road

These are the main reasons behind such accidents. Please take into consideration these causes to reduce the number of road accidents in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is behind the road accidents in Ghana – Anita Desosoo Author: Michael Hammond

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Common reasons for car accidents

reasons for accidents, causes of motor vehicle accidents, reasons for car accidents

There is no doubt that driving a car with excitement constitutes a high risk. You can face several unwanted consequences, such as permanent injuries, loss of earnings, death, etc. Why not take precautionary measures so you can avoid accidents altogether. If you are a driver and really serious about your life then we are here to help you understand the causes of car accidents. Please take a note of the below reasons for accidents and its preventive measures to avoid such accidents.

1. Over-speeding

Many drivers do not follow the speed limit, they drive 60kph, 70kph, 80kph and sometimes above 90kph which is over the limit for most areas. Over speeding is an easy way to get involved in a car accident. Drivers know the risk but ignore the danger. Traffic engineers as well as federal, state and local governments have determined the maximum speed limit for safe travel, all car drivers need to obey that rule as well as they should consider the consequences before increasing their speed limit.

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2. Drunk driving

This is one of the major causes of car accidents, because when you drink you lose your ability to focus properly while driving a car. It is not only dangerous for the driver but also for other innocent road users. This problem can only be reduced through enlisting strict laws and enforcing them.

If the weather condition is not good then there is a chance of a car accident because water creates slick and dangerous surfaces, the causes of motor vehicle accidents. Drive carefully while it's raining to avoid such these types of accidents.

4. Design defects

No product is ever made perfectly, and cars are no exception. Some products have defects and this can also be the case with cars. Automobiles have hundreds of parts if there is any defect in any part that might cause a serious car accident.

6. Animal crossing

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Animals are not educated like us. They do not know the rules and regulations of the road; wild animals can cross the road at any time. This causes road accidents, so it is up to you to be careful with them. Take caution when you see an animal crossing the road and use high beams when travelling across rural areas at night.

7. Bad roads

The nature of the roads in Ghana is another major factor that contributes to the high accident rates in Ghana. Drivers sometimes try to swerve potholes only to end up in an accident. Having first-grade roads especially in congested urban areas is a must if we want to reduce the level of carnage on our roads.

most accidents are caused by, why accidents happen, why do accidents happen

READ ALSO: The real reason behind Ebony's accident

Human causes of road accidents

Road accidents can turn children into orphans and wipe out the entire family, so, be careful while driving. Whereas, a human being is also the main cause of road accidents because one has the responsibility to control the vehicle properly at the time of driving. Those who are walking on the road also have the responsibility to cross the road carefully. Behavioural factors of humans are the major causes of a road accident. People don't follow the road signs and that can cause a lot of problems. People should be careful with the traffic rules, road condition, mobile phone, etc. They should avoid alcohol while driving. Furthermore, the road-safety authority has the responsibility to do a mid-term review of the road condition to reduce the occurrence of such incidents.

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READ ALSO: Road safety tips you need to know

Mechanical causes of road accident

accidents on the road, reasons for accidents, causes of motor vehicle accidents

Mechanical failure in a vehicle is one of the main reasons for road accidents. Here are the top 5 mechanical causes that lead to a road accident.

Tyres/ wheel problem

There are mainly two types of problems linked to the tyres, they are blowouts and worn tyres. Tyre blowouts can happen due to worn-out, under or over-inflated tyres that causes a sudden burst under heavy pressure or even due to sudden and severe temperature changes. This reduces the ability to control a vehicle all at once leading to a crash. Worn tyres are another type of problem, sometimes, tyres start to wear thin by losing their tread; this can be a major problem on the road. Worn tyres have more chances to slip, take more distance to break and it is not responsive because of their weak grip on the road. Maintaining optimal tyre pressure and replacing tyres before they completely lose their tread are the preventive measures for avoiding mechanical failures on the road.

DVLA road signs and meanings in Ghana

Brake-related issue is a common and critical problem. It becomes difficult for a driver to take sudden action to prevent such issues that cause a road accident . To prevent such issues, you have to check thoroughly at least once after every 30,000 miles.

Headlights/ taillights

If there is any problem in the headlight/ taillight then one will not be able to see properly while driving in the night time. This increases the risk of accidents, vehicle lights are more important even in the daytime while you are preparing to change lanes or intend to slow down for a turn. It is very important for a driver to fix any problem in headlight or taillight with urgency.

Windshield wipers

Never underestimate the importance of windshield wipers; it is very helpful at the time of heavy rain. During rain, visibility is greatly reduced, at that time windshield wipers help to clear rain drops falling on the front glass and also enhances the level of visibility. However, worn out wiper blades are less effective to clear rain which causes loss of vision, resulting in road accidents.

List of engineering companies in Ghana

Steering and suspension

Most accidents are caused by steering/suspension/engine-related problems. Why DO accidents happen more due to these problems? The main reason behind this is, it is very difficult to identify. Damage due to suspension caused by wear and tear is difficult to sort out from the damage incurred in a crash. In other words, steering and suspension issues may cause a loss of control when you are completely unprepared.

These are the major causes of road accidents that we are facing in our daily life. It is our humble request to people who ride motor vehicles to be more careful with these causes. Read the causes properly and understand why do accidents happen. This knowledge could save your life.

Source: YEN.com.gh

Chris Ndetei (Lifestyle writer) Christopher Ndetei is a junior reporter writer who joined the Yen team in May 2021. He graduated from the Machakos Technical College in 2009 with a diploma in ICT. Chris has over two years of experience in content creation and more than ten working in the hospitality industry. He covers lifestyle/entertainment, focusing on biographies, life hacks, gaming and guides. In 2023, Christopher finished the AFP course on Digital Investigation Techniques. You can reach him at [email protected]

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Published: 14 January 2021

Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana

Festival Godwin Boateng ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8498-8498 1

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 8 , Article number: 13 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The paper sheds light on the problem of the growing embracement of penal populism (fines and prison sentences) as a measure for dealing with road trauma in Africa through a case study of Ghana. It argues that the policy of hunting for rogue drivers to make roads safer in the continent is as ineffective as killing mosquitoes one by one to control malaria. The best remedy is to drain the swamps in which they breed. The swamps, in respect of road trauma in Africa, are the ineffective public transportation systems and the focus on constructing more expensive roads, which encourage the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sectors that are structurally embedded in driver exploitation. These factors coupled with police corruption and the traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns are what underlie safety-adverse driving and road transport problems generally in the continent. More fundamentally, the paper argues that the law enforcement-heavy approach to road trauma essentializes African drivers as having a danger-prone driving culture. This generates (in)discipline concerns that act as a red herring by deflecting attention from the structural factors undermining road safety in the continent: the continuing effects of neoliberal programs funded by international development bodies, and the profiteering and political interests of powerful coalitions of private transport owners’ unions and public officials that have molded and entrenched the continent’s road transport sectors in its present problematic forms to serve particular purposes. The paper hopes to move road safety conversations in Africa away from the present thinking that enforcing greater punishments against drivers, rather than addressing the broader societal systems whose effects manifest in the road transport sector, is “ the ” answer to the unacceptably high rate of carnages on the continent’s roads.

“Indiscipline” in context: a political-economic grounding for dangerous driving behaviors among Tro-Tro drivers in Ghana

How effective are police road presence and enforcement in a developing country context?

Global diffusion of three road safety policies, 1964–2015

Introduction.

Among the top 10 causes of deaths in the world, road injury stands alone as the only non-disease-related phenomenon. According to the World Health Organization, deaths from road accidents increased from 1.24 million per year in 2013 to 1.35 million in 2018 (WHO, 2018 ). The data suggest that Africa has the worst rate of road traffic deaths in the world with an unacceptably high fatality rate of 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people—nearly three times that of Europe. Some analysts suggest that the rate of road carnage in the continent could even be higher than the WHO’s estimate. They peg it at some 65 deaths per 100,000 people (see Adeloye et al., 2016 , for instance). It is estimated that road accidents could become the 5th leading cause of worldwide death by 2030 (Salmon and Lenné, 2015 ), with high levels of continuing inequality in situations, between, and within, low and middle income countries. Today, road trauma has been prioritized, and rightly so, as the serious global public health and development problem that it is. For instance, road safety, a key indicator of SDGs 3 and 11, is now a recognized global development priority. In Africa, the global capital of road trauma, various interventions are being implemented to deal with the menace. The challenge, however, is that, in a range of the countries, the preferred interventions tend to target the symptoms rather than the complex set of deep causes of the menace. This paper focuses on one of such countries in West Africa: Ghana.

Ghana has a serious problem with road fatalities, which have increased by 12–15% annually since 2008 (Dotse et al., 2019 ). Data from the National Road Safety Authority suggest that 2084 people were killed through road accidents in 2016 with additional 10,438 suffering various degrees of injuries (NRSC, 2016 ). Road trauma is among the top 10 causes of deaths in Ghana (CDC, 2019 ) with a socio-economic cost of 1.6% of GDP as at 2006 (Boateng, 2020a ). Obeng-Odoom ( 2010 , 2013 ) suggests that the figure could even be much higher when adjusted for the rising rate of road fatalities in the country. According to the National Road Safety Authority, the lead public statutory body responsible for road safety management in Ghana, the main causes of road accidents in the country relate to adverse driver behaviors such as over-speeding; reckless overtaking, drunk and fatigue driving (GhanaWeb, 2019a ; Ministry of Transport and NRSC, 2012 ). The mainstream media and policy (e.g., Ghana Police Service, 2019 ; NRSC, 2014 , 2016 ), as well as academic (e.g., Amo, 2014 ; Nyamuame et al., 2015 ; Sam et al., 2018 ) discourses on these accident-inducing risky driving practices frame the causes at the level of the drivers, which, in turn, elicit countermeasures that aim at changing or fixing them to “ behave ” correctly.

The countermeasures tend to involve road safety education/campaigns, but high emphasis is often placed on law enforcement. For instance, in July 2019, the Ghana Police Service set up a “ traffic enforcement team ” to collaborate with Citi TV—one of the vibrant media houses in Ghana—to check “ road traffic violations and other acts of indiscipline ” in the country (Ghana Police Service, 2019 ). The intervention, dubbed “ War Against Indiscipline ” driving (WAI), involved the deployment of police officers and reporters from Citi TV to monitor motorists on the roads. Since July 2019, many drivers have been arrested on live TV for violating various road traffic regulations in Accra. Just within 2 days of the commencement of the operation, the state amassed some GH¢258,000 (close to US$5000) in fines from the prosecution of some 500 drivers for various infractions (Ghanaweb, 2019b ). The police have been armed with more vehicles and other operational equipment to extend the “ War” from the capital (Accra) to other parts of the country (CitiTube, 2019 ; Nyabor, 2019 ).

The recent intensification of greater penalties, enforcement, and incarceration as a measure for inducing safer driving and reducing road trauma is not limited to Ghana alone, it is rapidly becoming the main and the most popular road safety measure in a range of other African countries as well. For instance, the Tanzanian government has recently proposed new traffic laws to prosecute reckless drivers and reduce road traffic accidents in the country (Mathias, 2019 ). In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, not too long ago, some 60 drivers were mass-prosecuted for various traffic offenses through a joint operation by the country’s National Transport and Safety Authority; National Highway Authority, the police and the traffic department (Shilitsa, 2019 ). Similar measures are being pursued vigorously in other parts of Africa including Nigeria (Osoteku, 2019 ) and Uganda (Kasirye, 2017 ). There is a deep-seated notion in Africa that the unacceptably high rate of road carnage in the continent would have reduced if rogue drivers were penalized severely enough. For instance, in Ghana, the War Against Indiscipline driving has been well received. There is a widespread euphoria that the country is finally cracking the whip harder enough to instill safety considerations “ into the psyche and driving culture of Ghanaians [to] reduce road crashes significantly” (ModernGhana, 2019 ).

In other parts of the world, research (see, for instance, Novoa et al., 2010 ; Constant et al., 2009 ) has shown that toughening the consequences of road traffic offenses tends to yield some safety outcomes in both the number of drivers that are involved in injury collisions and the number of people that are injured in collisions. Could similar safety benefits accrue to Africa? Here lies the mandate of this paper: It examines whether Africa could police/punish its way out of road fatalities as the public euphoria seems to suggest—through a case study of Ghana. This is a worthwhile endeavor given the high human and other costs of road accidents in the country and the continent. A poor country and continent suffering massive losses from road trauma must spend their resources on interventions that are likely to deliver optimal and widespread sustainable safety benefits. The review was guided by the following questions:

What are the influences of risky driving practices or adverse driver behavior in Ghana?

Are the factors amenable to law enforcement measures (i.e., greater fines and incarceration)?

What could be learnt from the evaluation to improve road safety management in Ghana and other African countries similarly situated?

Methods, materials, and analytical framework

The analysis is informed mainly by secondary evidence from three main sources: media, scholarly, and institutional sources. The media evidence include news reports, and statements on road accidents in Ghana and Africa made by policymakers and other influential people, including presidents, parliamentarians, ministers, and police heads. The views of these powerful people and similar public sentiments are worth considering not only because they often seep into academic discourses, but also they tend to form the basis of public policy. For instance, based on a Presidential Committee report that claimed that “Indiscipline is the main contributory factor to the increasing incidents of road traffic crashes” in Ghana (Ghanaweb, 2019a ), the government approved a colossal 1 billion Ghana Cedis to tackle indiscipline driving behaviors through road surveillance, sensitization, and public education (Ibrahim, 2019 ). The media materials were gathered with key term searches such as “road accidents in Ghana/Africa”; “road trauma in Ghana/Africa”; “road safety problems in Ghana and Africa”; “road safety policies in Ghana” on Google which, then, led the search to the stories on the website of the news agency that carried them. The use of data from media sources has been endorsed by many an African researcher (see e.g., Obeng-Odoom, 2011 ; Oteng-Ababio and Agyemang, 2015 ; Yahya, 2006 ) as a powerful and useful approach to exploring public discourses in the continent. Nonetheless, the potential of bias in reportage means that studies that rely on such sources should draw on a variety of media outlets to get a comprehensive picture of the topic under review. As a result, the study sourced information from both private (e.g., Ghanaweb; Peacefmonline; ModernGhana) and state-owned media agencies (e.g., GraphicOnline).

The search terms used to gather the media materials from Google were similar to those used to gather the scholarly materials except that most of the scholarly materials were sourced from the more rigorous academic search engine: Google Scholar. After reviewing the initial materials gathered, the snowball sampling technique was applied to search and incorporate some of their references. This helped to expand the scope of the materials search. The institutional materials include policy documents, road accident reports and other similar documents of government and other agencies whose endeavors focus on road safety. Materials from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) of Ghana, the Ghana Police Service, the Driver Vehicle License Authority (DVLA), the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Roads and Highways; the Federal Road Safety Commission of Nigeria, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, the Uganda’s National Road Authority, the Kenya’s National Highway Authority and the Rwanda National Police and international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proved particularly useful in situating the study within the local, regional and global contexts as appropriate.

These various policy, media, and scholarly materials gathered on driver behavior and road traffic crahses (RTCs) in Ghana and Africa generally were knitted together and refracted through a political-economic framework that coherently and systematically illuminates the power relations or dynamics underlying the Ghanaian road transport sector. Based on this analysis, the study found that, contrary to opinion, the influences of risky driving behaviors in Ghana are not attitudinally-grounded—that is to say the behaviors do not result from indiscipline or moral failure on the part of the implicated drivers—to be simply resolved through sanctions or even education. At the heart of Ghana’s road safety challenges are the ineffective public transportation systems and the focus on constructing more expensive roads, which encourage the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport industry that is structurally embedded in driver exploitation. These factors, coupled with police corruption and the traffic congestions in the cities induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns are what undermine safer driving and road transport safety generally in the country. However, the present structure of Ghana’s road transport sector is not a natural creation. It is the intersecting impact and extended impact of the programs and ideologies of foreign powers (read neoliberalism), as well as the profiteering and political interests of powerful coalitions of private transport owners’ unions and public officials that have molded and entrenched the sector in its present problematic form.

Thus, the factors that give rise to risky driving practices and for that matter road safety challenges generally in Ghana are simultaneously subordinated to and enmeshed in broader processes that are expressions of the international, national and local socio-political-economic processes, factors and developments that molded and continue to shape the country’s road transport sector for particular purposes. The study, based on this analysis, would argue that not only does the present driver-centric media, policy and academic approach to road trauma in Ghana create a false impression that Ghanaian drivers have a danger-prone driving culture, it also overlooks the global-local structural power dynamics, which interplay create, indeed, maintain and worsen road transport problems in the country. This is not the first study to explore Ghana’s road transport problems against the backdrop of the realities of contested power relations underpinning the country’s road transport sector. The originality of this study, however, (distinguished from the existing ones—e.g., Oteng-Ababio and Agyemang, 2015 ; Burchardt, 2015 ; Obeng-Odoom; 2010 , 2013 ) lies with the explicit application of its political-economic insight to challenge the analytical purchase of the mainstream driver-centric literature (e.g., Coleman, 2014 ; Haadi, 2014 ; Sam and Abane, 2017 ; Sam et al., 2020 ; Siaw et al., 2013 ) and show that the repertoire of penal populist (Ghana Police Service, 2019 ) and other interventions that emerge from the literature are not adequately suited to yield widespread sustainable safety benefits in the country.

Therefore, in terms of overall original contribution, the study offers a political-economic grounding that illuminates the deficiencies in the mainstream driver-centric approach to road safety practice and research in Ghana. The paper hopes to move road safety policy and research conversations in the country and Africa generally away from the present thinking that enacting and enforcing greater punitive measures against drivers, rather than addressing the broader societal systems whose effects manifest within the road sector, is “ the ” answer to the unacceptably high rate of road carnages on the continent’s roads. After this overview, the rest of the paper is structured into 4 parts: The next section (“Etiology of risky driving in Ghana: a review of the media, policy and academic discourses”) reviews and critiques the mainstream driver-centric approach to road safety in Ghana. The section argues that the focus of the approach on immediate driver errors and its attribution of the errors to drivers’ character pathology or indiscipline hides more than it reveals. There is even more to learn from examining how broader system-level factors in the Ghanaian transport sector and society in general affect the behavior of drivers and overall safety outcomes in the country. The section “A 30,000 foot view of road transport problems in Ghana” draws on the political economy literature on Ghana’s road transport sector broadly to theorize a more fundamental and sociological grounding for risky driving behavior and road transport problems generally in the country. The section “Discussion: can Ghana police/punish (or even educate) its way out of road trauma?” examines whether the risky driving-inducing factors discussed in the political economy literature are amenable to law enforcement. The purpose of this evaluation is to ascertain whether the recent intensification of penal populist measures could address the factors and, to that end, yield widespread sustainable road safety benefits in the country. The section “Conclusion” summarizes the main claims of the study and concludes with some comments on their implications for road safety policymaking in Ghana and other similarly situated African countries.

Etiology of risky driving in Ghana: a review of the media, policy, and academic discourses

The mainstream academic, media and public policy diagnosis of risky driving practices in Ghana such as over-speeding, reckless overtaking, drunk and fatigue driving follows a driver-centric approach —that is to say the diagnosis locates the problems at the level of drivers. Emphasis is placed on drivers’ personal conduct or behavior (such as recklessness, unruliness, indiscretion, inattentiveness and poor judgment). For instance, one presidential committee argued in their report that “ indiscipline is the main contributory factor to the increasing incidents of road traffic crashes ” in Ghana (Ghanaweb, 2019a ). In its 2014 road traffic crashes report, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) (now called National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) attributed bus and minibus crashes to drivers’ indiscretion and poor judgment (NRSC, 2014 ). The conclusions of the presidential committee and the NRSA are consistent with the widely held notion in Ghana that the unacceptably high rate of road carnage in the country is primarily a function of the aggregates of bad attitudes of individual road users—drivers in particular. Parliamentarians (Ghanaweb, 2018 ); Former Presidents (PeacefmOnline, 2019 ); ministers of state (Gobah, 2019 ); the police and the media (Ghana Police Service, 2019 ) often attribute the carnage on Ghana’s roads to driver-related factors.

The systematic literature on road trauma in Ghana too is largely driver-centric. For instance, Nyamuame et al. ( 2015 ) attribute over-speeding; overloading and disregard for road signs/regulations to drivers’ negligence and indiscipline. Amo ( 2014 ) suggests that drivers, rather than vehicles, are the cause of road fatalities in Ghana. Sam et al. ( 2018 ) make similar driver-centric claims—suggesting that about 70% of bus/minibus accidents in Ghana are due to adverse driver behavior in the form of lapses and errors (inexperience and inattention), and traffic violations (improper overtaking, improper turning, over-speeding, fatigue driving and tailgating). Sam et al. ( 2020 ) findings suggest that most passengers in Ghana rate driver behavior as the most important predictor of safety, with the implication that they are likely to attribute unsafe outcomes to driver-related factors. Hart ( 2013 ) and Okraku ( 2016 ) found that Ghanaians attribute the inundation of rickety vehicles on the roads to drivers’ greed, selfishness, desire for “ quick money ” and lack of respect for human life. Studies such as Sam and Abane ( 2017 ); Haadi ( 2014 ) ; Siaw et al., ( 2013 ) and Coleman ( 2014 ) also take a driver-centric approach to road safety problems in Ghana. It is, however, worth mentioning that the view that RTCs are primarily a function of bad attitudes on the part of drivers is widely held in other African countries as well. See Udodiong ( 2016 ) for the complaints of the Federal Road Safety Commission of Nigeria; Harare ( 2016 ) for that of the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe and Musinga ( 2016 ) for similar complaints by Uganda’s National Road Authority. Kinyanjui ( 2019 ) and Taarifa ( 2017 ) too have reported similar concerns put forward by Kenya’s National Highway Authority and the Rwanda National Police.

The framing of road transport problems around driver-related factors is not peculiar to Ghana or Africa though. Traditionally, that is how road safety discourses tend to be approached—around the behaviors of frontline actors or road users. This way of approaching road transport problems, broadly conceptualized as a road user approach , perceives human errors as the main cause of road accidents and, therefore, the individual road user is solely responsible when accidents occur. The approach is backed by several international studies (e.g., Treat et al., 1977 ; Sabey and Taylor, 1980 ; WHO, 2004 ) claiming that road user factors are the sole or main contributory factors to about 95% of all road accidents. Even as they usually focus on road users in general, as happening in Ghana and other parts of Africa, high emphasis is often placed on drivers. Thus, most road user focused studies tend to center on drivers. Such studies have a strong focus on specific driver-related issues that influence RTCs for the purposes of developing countermeasures (see Larsson et al., 2010 ). The challenge with driver-centric approaches, however, is that, as with the situation in Ghana, often, little consideration is given to the context of adverse driver behaviors and their influences. This omission is crucial because by attributing RTCs to drivers’ personal attitudes without any systematic engagement with the context of the behaviors and their influences, the impression is created that Ghanaian drivers are putatively bad people or have an inherent preference for dangerous driving.

The impression sits in tension with the growing recognition in multiple fields or sectors of safety (Rasmussen, 1997 ; LaPorte and Consolini, 1991 ; Perrow, 1981 ; Dekker and Leveson, 2014 ; McDermott et al., 2018 ; Boateng, 2019 , 2019b ) that accident-inducing errors are usually not the flaws of morally or even technically or mentally deficient “bad apples” or individuals, but the, often, predictable actions and omissions that are systematically connected to the safety-critical domains in which people operate. With the realization that the true causes of accidents tend to lie within the sociotechnical context of the safety-critical domains in which people operate, road transport research and practice has taken a revolutionary turn. Today, proximate driver errors or adverse driver behaviors (such as over-speeding, inattentiveness and fatigue driving) are considered not as the causes of accidents but as the outcomes of the interactions between and among the wider societal or system-level factors (e.g., government policies, terms and conditions of labor relations and compensation systems) that underlie the sociotechnical road transport system in which drivers operate (Hughes et al., 2015 ; Salmon et al., 2012 ; Newnam et al., 2017 ; Thompson et al., 2015 ).

Thus, the focus of contemporary road safety research and practice has shifted from identifying immediate driver errors or breaches (e.g., fatigue driving, over-speeding) to the range of wider societal causes, agencies, motivations and constraints that provoke or incentivize them. This implies that the present mainstream driver-centric discourse in Ghana, which focuses on immediate driver errors and frames them as a function of bad attitudes or drivers’ indiscipline hides more than it reveals. There is even more to learn from examining how broader system-level factors in the Ghanaian transport sector and society in general affect drivers’ behaviors and overall safety outcomes in the country. Currently, there is little in terms of systematic studies that approach adverse driver behavior in the country from such a broader system-level political-economic perspective. Nonetheless, Boateng ( 2020a ); Dotse et al. ( 2019 ) and Obeng-Odoom ( 2010 , 2013 ), and some other cognate studies on the political economy of Ghana’s transport sector offer some food for thought. The next section reviews the risky driving-inducing factors discussed in the literature with the view to examining whether the presently intensified law enforcement-heavy measures (i.e., greater fines and incarceration) could address them and, hence, yield widespread sustainable safety benefits in the country.

A 30,000 foot view of road transport problems in Ghana

Broadly, the political economy literature grounds Ghana’s road transport problems at the crosscutting edges of both local/internal and global/external factors. An important local factor emphasized in the literature as central to road transport problems and, thus, critical to establishing the grounds or structural context for the deleterious consequences of road trauma in the country is the failure of successive governments to invest meaningfully in rail and public bus transport and other infrastructure to support non-motorized transportation systems (such as bicycle lanes). This has meant that Ghanaians rely heavily on imported cars–either as owners or as passengers (Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ). Nonetheless, the failure of the Ghanaian state to play a leading role in the provision of transport needs and services generally and the high importation of cars into the country are also linked to economic liberalization—an external factor. In the 1980s, Ghana’s economy tumbled forcing the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military government to run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for support. Attached to the support offered by the Bretton Woods institutions was the condition that the government liberalize the economy (Boateng, 2020b , 2020c , 2020d ; Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ).

Further to ‘ advising ’ the PNDC government to divest itself of its holdings in transport companies, liberalization reforms also opened the floodgate for increased importation of cars into the country—a development that has since remained a marked feature of Ghana’s transport sector (Burchardt, 2015 ; Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ). The problem, however, is that only a few number (8%) of imported cars in Ghana are brand new. The remaining 92% could be second-, third-, fourth-, or even fifth-hand cars (Burchardt, 2015 ; Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ). Some of the vehicles are so old that they have been nicknamed “ Eurocarcas ”. A study by the National Road Safety Commission (as it was then called) found that a significant proportion of the commercial vehicles in Ghana are old. The age profile is mostly above 5 years. Only 13% are below 5 years, about 34% are up to 10 years with those up to 15 years and above constituting over 50% (Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ). Research has shown that fatalities in older vehicles are four times higher than in new vehicles (see RACV, 2017 ). Indeed, a recent analysis suggests that while old vehicles make up just 20% of road vehicles globally, they constitute one third of all fatal car crashes (RACV, 2017 ). With the heavy reliance on old cars for commercial and other purposes, it is not surprising that Ghana experiences high rate of road fatalities. Further to incentivizing the importation of old cars into the country, economic liberalization also propagated a certain land-use pattern, which also contributes to road safety problems.

The reforms attracted enormous private capital often multinational but also local, investments into the country. Nonetheless, the tendency for private investors to strive to enjoy the perks of economies of scale meant that almost all the investments were directed to the old generalized growth areas or industrial enclaves—i.e., the big cities particularly Accra, Tema and Kumasi (Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ). The over-concentration of investments/business, and to that end jobs, services, trade and headquarters’ of public and private institutions in the cities, has meant that almost all the traffic in Ghana move to the same place, with the attendant repercussion for gridlocks popularly called “ go slow ”.The discourses on the adverse effects of traffic congestion in Ghana often focus on issues like productivity, air pollution and delays (Burchardt, 2015 ; Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ). Nevertheless, by holding drivers up on the road for extended periods, traffic congestions could also generate safety-adverse driving problems such as long hour and fatigue driving. Drivers, particularly commercial drivers, held up in traffic for long periods are likely to undertake aggressive and other safety-adverse driving practices to make up for lost time or potential revenue. Indeed, some empirical evidence has emerged that traffic congestions in the cities incentivize over-speeding—one of the main causes of RTCs in Ghana. For instance, some drivers submitted in Dotse et al. ( 2019 ) that they try to make up for the time they get hold up in traffic in the cities by increasing their speed on the highways—the so-called “ good ”roads in Ghana. One of the drivers expressed himself on the nexus between traffic congestion and over-speeding as follows:

…. Driving from Accra to Kumasi should take about 4 h but because of the traffic you can be on the road for 6 h. … you can be in traffic alone for three hours and when you finally move through you want to speed to cover the time you spent in the traffic especially when the road is “good” (Emphasis added).

This may well partly explain the rather puzzling persistence of many RTCs on the “ best ” of Ghana’s roads (the highways) (NRSC, 2016 ; Afukaar et al., 2003 ). Further to the importation of old cars and land-use patterns-induced gridlocks–thanks to neoliberal reforms–there are other political-economic dynamics and contested power relations that are critical to understanding road safety problems in Ghana. One of them is high levels of unemployment. The mainstream discourses (see e.g., Baah-Boateng, 2013 , 2015 ) on the causes of unemployment in Ghana largely focus on individual factors such as education, gender, age and marital statuses as well as people’s reservation wages and locations (whether they reside in a rural or an urban setting). Nonetheless, multiple systematic studies (see e.g., Arthur, 1991; Kendie, 1998; Owusu et al., 2008; Otiso and Owusu, 2008; UN-HABITAT, 2009 in Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ) have confirmed that the rising unemployment in Ghana and the attendant repercussions for the burgeoning informal sector are structurally embedded in bigger historical-political-economic factors and developments such as the massive reductions in public-sector employment; divestiture of public enterprises; the wage cuts and freezes and massive retrenchment exercises that came with structural adjustment reforms and have since remained key approaches of organizing socio-political-economic life by the Ghanaian state.

Regardless of the causes, studies (see, Oteng-Ababio and Agyemang, 2012 , 2015 ) suggest that, together with the lack of viable organized public transport, the declines in opportunities for wage employment and unemployment generally in Ghana have led to a rapid growth in dangerous non-conventional transportation modes, such as the commercialization of motorcycles popularly called Okada . According to Ghana’s Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Okada alone accounted for 25% of the 1538 road fatalities recorded in the country in 2013 (Ghanaweb, 2013 ). Today, the chance of dying from an Okada crash in Ghana, according to the NRSA, stands at a troubling ten times higher than a car crash (Dapatem, 2020 ). Clearly, the proliferation of Okada in Ghana has been troubling. However, that is not the only way unemployment is influencing safety outcomes in the transport sector. The high level of unemployment in the country has also meant that, as with that of other African countries (Rizzo, 2011 , 2017 ), Ghana’s commercial car transport sector attracts a large number of lumpenproletariat seeking jobs as drivers. The situation ordinarily puts car owners in a stronger position to impose unrealistic end-of-day-sales on drivers (Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ; Dotse et al., 2019 ). As with their fellows elsewhere in Africa (Agbiboa, 2015 , 2016 ), the precarious conditions of commercial passenger drivers in Ghana are further worsened by the ever-present bribe-demanding corrupt police officers who have created a predatory economy across the passenger transport sector by extorting monies from drivers (Boateng, 2020a ). The drivers could only make enough revenue to cover operational costs and the police bribes, pay their owners, themselves, and their assistants only by increasing the number of trips or passengers per trip. They, invariably, therefore, are forced or incentivized to drive for long hours, resort to dangerous overtaking, overload their rickety vehicles and drive at dangerously high speeds with repercussions for RTCs. One driver, for instance, submitted in Dotse et al. ( 2019 ).

Many of us drivers are rushing and the problem is because of the sales you have to make…when there are more passengers like funerals on Saturday, I rush so much so I can get more money to make my sales. Even if the car is for you, after spending money at the shop you are left with something small for yourself so you have to rush whenever there are passengers and you have to work all day. You sometimes become tired but you don’t have to stop.

Some commercial passenger transport drivers engaged by Klopp and Mitullah ( 2016 ); Klopp et al. ( 2019 ); Rizzo ( 2011 , 2017 ); Behrens et al. ( 2016 ); McCormick et al. ( 2016a , 2016b ), and Agbiboa ( 2015 , 2016 ) reported similar experiences in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Nigeria. Efforts by the Ghanaian authorities to improve the passenger transport sector have largely been non-committal. For instance, in April 2010, the government announced its intentions to revive the participation of the state in the commercial passenger transport sector by implementing a public-sector bus rapid transit system. However, the government balked at the plan when it was pressured by the coalition of private transport owners’ unions who felt the intervention will take away their business (Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ). The plan was aborted partly because private transport owners’ unions such as the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA), the Ghana Co-operative Transport Association (GCTA) and the Ghana National Transport Owners Association (GNTOA) wield enormous political influence. Not only do they have substantial membership base that could decide elections, they also are a significant source of revenue for the government. From 1987 to 2003, the GPRTU, for instance, was collecting income tax from its members for the government. It is an arrangement that was entered into because of the lack of information about the earnings of drivers and transport owners (Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ). As such, successive governments found it useful to maintain the arrangement, as it provided one solution to the problem of informality, until the NPP government replaced it in 2003 with the current Vehicle Income Tax system, which requires drivers to instead pay tax on a quarterly basis (Burchardt, 2015 ).

Further, the members of the coalition of private transport owners’ unions in the country have the potential to disrupt political rallies if, through a strike, they refuse to provide mass transportation of party supporters to rally grounds. Indeed, Ghanaian drivers have a well-documented history of disrupting the country’s socio-political-economic life with strikes (see Hart, 2013 ). Politicians’ fear of incurring the wrath of the coalition of private transport owners’ unions has meant that successive governments have continued to underinvest in the public transport sector. Their focus has rather been on constructing more roads and retrofitting existing ones—which also serve political and other purposes (Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ). The problem, however, is that road construction may be one of the few cases in which Say’s law, supply creates its own demand, applies. The construction of more roads in Ghana has encouraged the importation of even more old cars, which end up worsening the safety problems in the country (Obeng-Odoom, 2010 , 2013 ). Per the foregoing, as summarized into Fig. 1 below, it could be argued that road accidents (but road transport problems in the broadest sense) in Ghana primarily are due to a high dependence almost exclusively on cars–either as owners or as passengers, in the context of the failure of the state to invest in alternative forms of transport, in which exploitative relationships between drivers and car owners as well as police corruption and land-use patterns-induced traffic congestions play key roles in reinforcing the prevalence of driving practices that undermine safety imperatives.

Conceptual framework of influences of road trauma in Ghana.

Thus, at the heart of Ghana’s road transport safety challenges are how the confluence of the programs and ideologies of foreign powers and the profiteering and political interests of powerful private groups and public officials undermine investment in public transport systems, leading to a high dependence on a privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport industry that is structurally embedded in exploitative power relations that incentivize or induce adverse driver behaviors. Ghana’s road safety problems including adverse driver behaviors such as over-speeding, fatigue driving and the likes need to be understood against the backdrop of the land-use patterns as well as the structural conditions of scarcity, deprivation, inequalities and the exploitative labor relations resulting from how foreign powers and powerful local private and public interest groups have molded and entrenched the road transport sector in its present form to serve particular purposes. Whether or not the structural conditions of scarcity, deprivation, inequalities, exploitations and realities of contested power relations that create, and, indeed, maintain and worsen road safety challenges such as risky driving practices and their deleterious consequences in the country are amenable to law enforcement measures—the preferred safety strategies in Ghanaian policy circles—is the concern of the next section.

Discussion: can Ghana police/punish (or even educate) its way out of road trauma?

In response to an, hitherto, uncoordinated road safety activities in the country, the Ghanaian government, under the World Bank-financed Transport Rehabilitation Project (TRP), initiated the Ghana Road Safety Project (GRSP) in 1988 to tackle the country’s road safety problems more effectively. A decade later, Parliament, by ACT 567 of 1999, transformed the National Road Safety Committee under the GRSP into the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC). This move, as with the recent one that has further transformed it into an “ Authority ”, was to provide the Commission with requisite staffing and funding to enable it to properly plan, promote and coordinate road safety activities in the country (Parliament of Ghana ACT 567, 1999 ). Since its establishment in 1999, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has been designing and coordinating road safety programs and strategies mainly focused on accident prevention campaigns, law enforcement measures and improvement of roads. Rather, ironically, road accidents in Ghana since the establishment of the NRSA, have almost doubled from 8500 in 1999 to about 16,000 in 2012 (Siaw et al., 2013 ). Today, as noted earlier, road injury is among the top 10 causes of deaths in the country (CDC, 2019 ) with some enormous socio-economic cost: Obeng-Odoom ( 2013 ) estimates that the cost of road injuries is around 2.4% of Ghana’s GDP. The findings of this research offer food for thought regarding the puzzling persistence of even more road fatalities at a time Ghana is supposedly doing road safety even “ better ”.

The evidence considered suggests that not only are the preferred safety interventions not in tune adequately with the causes of road transport problems in the country, but also some of the interventions actually contribute to the scale of the problems in untold ways. For instance, consider factors such as the high level of unemployment proliferating the commercialization of Okada as well as forcing commercial passenger drivers to sign onto lopsided agreements with car owners, which they could only fulfill by driving for long hours; overloading buses and being reckless and aggressive on the roads. It is doubtful that enacting greater punitive measures against commercial passenger and Okada riders or intensifying road safety education could resolve those problems. Some of the drivers Dotse et al. ( 2019 ) engaged on the Behavioral influences on driver crash risks in Ghana reported that because they are forced by their precarious working conditions to drive for long hours, “ …when we are feeling sleepy, we go to take “akpeteshie” [alcohol] to make us alert ”. Undoubtedly, increased policing and incarceration could help identify and remove some drunk and similar other drivers from the roads. However, that would not resolve the precarious conditions of their work and the job insecurities that incentivize inappropriate use of alcohol and other substances as coping mechanisms. Neither will it resolve the wider societal influences of alcohol misuse and addiction in the country with the implication that while alcohol-affected drivers will continually be caught and penalized, since they are not rehabilitated and little is done to tackle wider societal issues that contribute to its misuse and addiction, we can only expect a continued flow of alcohol-affected drivers onto the roads.

Clearly, the current embracement of penal populism and even road safety education as a measure for dealing with road trauma in Ghana could at best deliver only so much. In fact, when problematized even more broadly, it becomes clear that the challenge with road transport in Ghana is structurally embedded and inseparably connected to the high dependence almost exclusively on cars as the means of transport in the country–an unnatural problem linked to how the intersecting impact and extended impact of the programs and ideologies of foreign powers and profiteering and political interests of powerful private interest groups and public officials discourage investments in public transportation systems and encourage the construction of more expensive roads which, in turn, fuels the importation of more over-aged rickety cars for personal and commercial uses. Viewed this way, it could be argued that the present public policy of hunting for rogue drivers to make roads safer is akin to swatting mosquitoes one by one to control malaria. The problem with such reductionist approaches, as the prominent safety scientist, James Reason ( 2000 ) once noted is that the mosquitoes could still keep coming. The best remedy is to drain the swamp in which they breed. In respect of Ghana’s road safety challenges, the swamp, as demonstrated in this study, are the lack of viable public transportation systems and the policy focus on constructing more expensive roads, which encourage the importation of even more old cars, and a high dependence on a privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sector that is structurally embedded in driver exploitation. These factors, coupled with police corruption and traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns, are what incentivize dangerous driving behaviors in the country.

The overall point here is that, contrary to opinion, the influences of risky driving behaviors in Ghana are not attitudinally-grounded—that is to say the behaviors do not stem from the implicated drivers’ character pathology or indiscipline—to be simply resolved through sanctions or even education. They are symptoms of a complex tangle of structural factors including but not limited to the inadequate investment in public and alternative transport systems; heavy importation of over-aged cars; systemic police corruption; land-use patterns-induced traffic congestions; the high level of unemployment proliferating Okada entrepreneurialism as well as forcing commercial passenger drivers to sign onto lopsided agreements with car owners, which they could only fulfill by being reckless and aggressive on the roads—to name but a few of the structural conditions of scarcity, deprivation, inequalities, exploitations and realities of contested power relations that create, indeed, maintain and worsen road safety challenges in the country. Fixing these complex and intertwined structural drivers of road trauma in the country would require thinking beyond the present traditional domains of safety education, road engineering and the ever-popular law enforcement-heavy measures of declaring “ wars ” on drivers and enacting greater punitive sanctions against them (Ghana Police Service, 2019 ; ModernGhana, 2019 ). A more broad enough interdisciplinary approach that breaks silos and integrates lessons and ideas from fields such as public health, workplace safety, urban planning and road safety could facilitate the emergence of innovative interventions well-suited for tackling the broader societal systems whose effects manifest inside the sociotechnical road transport system.

The analysis presented in this study does not just challenge the adequacy of law enforcement-heavy measures for addressing road transport problems in Ghana, it also raises some serious issues with the analytical purchase of the underpinning driver-centric literature. As noted earlier, with the realization that the true causes of accidents tend to lie within the sociotechnical context of the safety-critical domains that people operate (Rasmussen, 1997 ; LaPorte and Consolini, 1991 ; Perrow, 1981 ; Dekker and Leveson, 2014 ), the emphasis of road transport research has shifted from proximate driver-related errors (e.g., over-speeding) to identifying the wider societal or system-level factors (e.g., government policies, terms and conditions of labor relations and compensation systems) that incentivize such errors or fail to prevent them from resulting in crashes (Hughes et al., 2015 ; Salmon et al., 2012 ; Newnam et al., 2017 ; Thompson et al., 2015 ). Yet, as shown throughout the study, road safety research in the Ghanaian scholarly community (Nyamuame et al., 2015 ; Amo, 2014 ; Sam et al., 2018 ; Sam et al., 2020 ; Sam and Abane, 2017 ; Haadi, 2014 ; Siaw et al., 2013 ; Coleman, 2014 ) continues to focus on driver-related factors and attributes risky driving behaviors to Ghanaian drivers’ attitudinal failure without any systematic engagement with the context of the behaviors and their influences. The evidence considered in this study shows that not only does this attitudinal focal diagnosis of RTCs create a false impression that Ghanaian drivers have a danger-prone driving culture, it also overlooks the global-local structural power dynamics, which interplay create, indeed, maintain and worsen the range of agencies, causes, motivations and constraints that provoke or incentivize them to undertake the risky driving practices that undermine their own personal safety, the safety of their passengers and other road users.

Consider, for instance, the pervasiveness of rickety minibuses (popularly called “ Tro-Tro ”) with squealing breaks, bald tires and rattling exhaust noises emitting thick, black smokes on Ghana’s roads. Research (see Hart, 2013 ; Okraku, 2016 ) shows that the Ghanaian public attribute the problem to drivers’ greed, selfishness and desire for “ quick money ” and lack of respect for human life. The drivers are frequently pilloried for inundating the roads with “ death traps ” ; “ safety hazards ”; “ Eurocarcas ”; “ flying coffins ”, and “ moving morgues ” (the derogative nicknames given to over-aged cars in Ghana and other parts of Africa—see Hart, 2013 ; Obeng-Odoom, 2010 ; Okraku, 2016 ; Agbiboa, 2020 ). The findings herein show, however, that the attribution of the problem to drivers’ greed or personal moral failure broadly leaves out a gamut of political-economic factors unexamined. It has been shown that the problem is largely due to the failure of successive governments to invest adequately in public transportation systems with the implication of forcing the majority of the population to rely on such cars for personal use or as passengers. Even more important is the forcible neoliberal exposure of the Ghanaian transport sector to the global political economy through structural adjustment or liberalization reforms. Obeng-Odoom ( 2013 ) shows that prior to 1983, that is before the PNDC government, the IMF and World Bank set Ghana on a neoliberal path, the incremental changes in the number of imported cars was sometimes even negative (e.g.,–2184 in 1983).

Economic liberalization overturned the trend and opened the floodgate for increased importation of mainly over-aged cars into the country—a development, which has since remained a marked feature of Ghana’s transport sector with attendant adverse repercussions for public health. Thus, the pervasiveness of rickety cars on Ghana’s roads is best understood not in the context of drivers’ character pathology (e.g., greed), but the lopsided power relations structurally embedded in the prevailing neoliberalized global political economy that allows car and oil companies in advanced capitalist economies to profit from selling over-aged cars, as a way of clearing their skies while soaking the skies and undermining public health in developing countries with toxic chemicals. The broader insight here is that the problems with rickety cars in Ghana but road safety challenges generally have a structural context: the factors that give rise to them emerge from the interplay of an array of intersecting socio-political-economic conditions and factors–some of which are internal (e.g., lack of viable public transportation systems) while others are externally-imposed (e.g., neoliberal structural reforms). Thus, Ghana’s road transport safety problem is simultaneously subordinated to and enmeshed in broader processes that are expressions of the international, national and local socio-political-economic processes, factors and developments that molded and continue to shape the road transport sector for particular purposes. This is an important insight worth integrating into the mainstream driver-centric approaches to road safety research in the country. The current research agenda that focuses on immediate driver errors and frames them as a function of character pathology, as demonstrated in this study, does not just weaponize the public and state apparatuses against drivers, it also overlooks the structural conditions of scarcity, deprivation, inequalities, exploitations and realities of contested power relations that incentivize or provoke them to resort to the risky driving behaviors that undermine their own personal safety, the safety of their passengers and other road users.

The contemporary science on road safety considers accident-inducing driver errors (such as over-speeding, fatigue driving, reckless overtaking) not as the causes of accidents but as the outcomes of the interactions between and among the wider societal or system-level factors (e.g., government policies, terms and conditions of labor relations and compensation systems) that underlie the sociotechnical road transport system in which drivers operate. Nonetheless, in Ghana, the diagnosis follows precisely the opposite presumption: Road safety research and practice in the country focus on immediate driver errors and frame them as a function of bad attitudes or indiscipline on the part of drivers. The effect of this improper diagnosis of the problem has been the misdirection of countermeasures from the real causes of the menace. For instance, as shown in this study, at the heart of Ghana’s road safety challenge is the lack of viable and variety of (public) transportation systems, which, therefore, encourages the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on a privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sector that is structurally embedded in driver exploitation, and, therefore, coupled with police corruption and traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns, incentivize dangerous driving behaviors and their deleterious consequences in the country.

Yet, instead of aligning countermeasures with these structural conditions of scarcity, deprivation, inequalities, exploitations, and realities of contested power relations that create, and, indeed, maintain and worsen road trauma in the country, not only are Ghanaian duty bearers focused on enacting and enforcing greater punitive measures against drivers, but they also implement other policies that end up worsening the problems in untold ways. For instance, the current NPP government has declared this year ( 2020 ) the “ Year of Roads ” (Gyesi, 2020 ). However, as shown in this study, the construction of more expensive roads encourages the importation of more over-aged cars for personal and commercial uses, which end up worsening road safety problems in the country. Further, the government has recently passed a law aimed at attracting automotive manufacturers and assemblers to establish plants to manufacture and sell even more private cars in the country (see Ernst and Young LLP, 2020 ). The main opposition party, the NDC, has threatened to revoke the law if it wins power (Frimpong, 2020 ). Nonetheless, it is questionable whether their proposed alternatives could meaningfully improve the road safety situation in the country. The Party has proposed, for instance, to legalize the commercial use of Okada—a move that is also high on the current government’s agenda (see Cromwell, 2020 ).

The call for a re-consideration of commercial use of Okada in a strictly regulated regime as discussed elsewhere (e.g., Oteng-Ababio and Agyemang, 2012 ) has some merits. It may help in overcoming congestion, provide jobs, and savings in travel time. Nonetheless, there are founded concerns (see e.g., Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ) about its eco-efficiency. There is also little evidence that the financially and technically stressed public institutions responsible for transport safety in the country could effectively regulate and contain the very high health and safety risks associated with Okada. These concerns become direr when account is taken of the ever-intractable issue of systemic corruption in the country. As happening with cars, corruption could worsen the already troubling safety outcomes of Okada by promoting, inter alia, improper training and licensing and fostering violations, so hazardous riding behaviors may go unchecked and mandatory maintenance and insurance may be ignored. More fundamentally, as demonstrated in this and other studies (e.g., Oteng-Ababio and Agyemang, 2015 ; Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ), the proliferation of Okada entrepreneurialism in cities in Ghana is primarily due to declines in opportunities for wage employment and organized public transport implying that addressing the lack of viable public transport systems, and structural unemployment could bring better and widespread sustainable road safety outcomes.

Consider efficient public transport such as rail and big buses, for instance. The evidence in countries like Japan (see Obeng-Odoom, 2010 ) suggest that, these transportation options, together with the promotion of non-motorized forms of non-commercial transport such as bicycles, have the potential to reduce meaningfully heavy reliance on private cars. Presently, it is estimated that, together with taxis, private cars occupy more than half of Ghana’s road space (see Burchardt, 2015 ). Cutting down the use of private cars through the above measures would reduce significantly the traffic congestions in the cities—a phenomenon identified in this and other studies (e.g., Dotse et al., 2019 ) as a key influence of safety-adverse driving practices such as fatigue and long hour driving as well as over-speeding on the highways. Also addressing structural unemployment and the related issue of labor exploitation could restore the present lopsided power relations embedded in the commercial passenger transport sector that forces drivers to sign onto “ Shylockian ” (or exploitative) agreements with car owners, which they fulfill on the roads via reckless and aggressive driving practices, with attendant repercussions for crash incidents.

The proposed measures, however, should be part of a bigger agenda of gradually draining the larger neoliberal swamp breeding almost all the (mosquitoes of) structural causes of road safety problems in the country. Not just the limited role of the state in the delivery of transportation needs, but also almost all the other structural drivers of road transport problems in Ghana–i.e. the heavy importation of over-aged cars into the country; the private capital-driven land-use patterns inducing traffic congestions and the related safety-adverse driving practices; the rising levels of unemployment underlying the proliferation of Okada entrepreneurism and the lopsided power relations embedded in the commercial passenger transport sector that forces drivers to enter into exploitative agreements with transport owners, which they fulfill on the roads through reckless and aggressive driving practices—have been demonstrated to be deeply embedded and inseparably connected to structural adjustment reforms. Although the official implementation of the reforms in Ghana ended in 1993, the program laid the foundation for neoliberalism—the political-economic program that insists that the only efficient way of organizing society is to align the constitutional state with private capital accumulation rather than the solution of collective action problems (Obeng-Odoom, 2013 ).

Today, as one former President of the Association of Ghana Industries once noted, “Ghana’s economy [has been] depressingly liberalized” (Obeng-Odoom, 2010 b, p. 34). Thus, almost every sector of the country has either been outsourced, corporatized and/or privatized wholly or partially (through public–private partnerships) to private firms (local and foreign). There is a deep-seated view among Ghana’s political elites that they could neoliberalize the country out of the shackles of poverty, diseases, unemployment, sanitation and the other gruesome challenges holding down the country. For instance, the policy proposals of the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC—the two major political parties in Ghana—for the ongoing 2020 general elections, as with past ones, are heavily market or private sector-driven (see NPP Manifesto, 2020 ; NDC Manifesto, 2020 ). However, as demonstrated in this study, unbridled alignment of society for the enhancement of profiteering interest of private capital tend to come with devastating consequences for human life and the environment. The study has led evidence in showing how the ideology has undermined meaningful attention towards organizing viable public transportation systems, leading to the proliferation of non-conventional transportation modes, such as Okada and a high dependence on a privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sector that is structurally embedded in driver exploitation, and, therefore, coupled with police corruption and traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns, are incentivizing dangerous driving behaviors and their deleterious consequences in the country.

Almost all the problems underlying Ghana’s road safety challenges to wit: the lack of viable public transportation systems; high level of unemployment; exploitative labor relations between drivers and transport companies or car owners and police corruption are well discernible in other African countries (see Klopp and Mitullah, 2016 ; Klopp et al., 2019 ; Rizzo, 2011 , 2017 ; Behrens et al., 2016 ; McCormick et al., 2016a , 2016b ; Agbiboa, 2015 , 2016 ). This suggests that the findings from Ghana may not be culturally or geographically specific, but could be meaningful to other African countries similarly situated. Nonetheless, further research is needed for validation. Such an endeavor will be relevant for developing a stronger understanding and unraveling contextual differences between and among countries to inform well-targeted interventions that could propel the attainment of the SDGs of reducing road trauma (SDG 3.6) and making roads safer (SDG 11.2) in the continent.

Data availability

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following people for providing helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper: Mrs Magdalene Nkrumah Boateng of Agricultural Development Bank, Makola-Accra; Dr. Jackie Klopp of the Earth Institute of Columbia University, New York.

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Boateng, F.G. Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8 , 13 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00695-5

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Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic
It is estimated that some 1.4 million people die from road crashes globally, with most of these being the youth, and people from developing countries. 1 In Ghana, 72 persons out of every 100 000 population, suffered from grievous bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past decade.
Contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana
The causes of this calamity are always different from one point of view to another. This research has been executed to provide expedient information on contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana.
(PDF) Road Traffic accidents in Ghana
In Ghana, 72 persons out of. every 100 000 popula tion, suffered from grievous. bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population. died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past. decade ...
Contributing Factors to Road Accidents in Ghana
The study engaged two hundred (200) respondents as a sample size that is 100 road safety stakeholders and 100 road users. Moreover, the major contributing factors to road accidents were identified as follows; poor nature of roads, carelessness of road users, faulty vehicles, stress, unskilled drivers, inadequate road signs, inefficient MTTU ...
Ghana's road traffic problems have deep and spreading roots
Much has been written about the crashes, congestion and pollution on Ghana's roads. Road injury is among the top 10 causes of deaths in the country. One report suggests that about $230 million ...
(PDF) Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public health Concern, And a
A lot of studies have been carried out on road accidents which channel the idea to the drivers being the highest causes of road accidents, however, few studies have been done on the part of ...
Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic
It is estimated that some 1.4 million people die from road crashes globally, with most of these being the youth, and people from developing countries.1 In Ghana, 72 persons out of every 100 000 population, suffered from grievous bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past decade.
[PDF] Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and
In Ghana, 72 persons out of every 100 000 population, suffered from grievous bodily injury, and close to 8 of the same population died from Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) over the past decade, with more than 60% of road traffic fatalities occured in children and young persons under 35 years of age. The impact of road traffic injuries could be enormous, affecting societies and individuals in ...
On Ghana's roads in 2022: safety has improved but private vehicles are
Fatal road injury is one of the top 10 causes of death in Ghana, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers at Ghana's Building and Road Research Institute of ...
PDF CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO ROAD ACCIDENTS IN GHANA Nathaniel Gyimah ...
Road accidents in Ghana are taking out the lives of innocent Ghanaians. The causes of this calamity are always different from one point of view to another. This research has been executed to provide expedient information on contributing factors to road accidents in Ghana. The research has made use of predecessors' works on the causes of road ...
Contributing Factors to Road Accidents in Ghana
Source: Field data (2020) [8]. 87 respondents (43.5%) alarmed that the major effect of road accidents is death which is inevitable but sometimes avoidable: They also lamented that their numerous family members were dead because of road accidents. 19 participants (9.5%) cleared the air that road accidents have resulted in many uncountable damages of property. 61 respondents (30.5%) said that ...
Standard responses to road accidents haven't worked in Ghana: here are
Road traffic accidents remain a major public health and development challenge in Ghana. They are among the top 10 causes of deaths, draining 2.54% of its gross domestic product annually. Some ...
(Pdf) Analysis of Road Traffic Accidents Trend in Ghana: Causing
To analyse the pattern of road traffic deaths in Ghana, fatalities of road traffic accidents by age group from 2001 - 2010 were obtained. Using published road traffic accident statistics from the National Road Safety Commission of Ghana, the pattern of RTF in the ten (10) geographical regions in Ghana was obtained, using moving average analysis.
Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public Health Concern, and a Call
The increasing RTAs with associated morbidity and mortality in Ghana need to be looked at more as a public health problem and priority that requires prompt tackling using a public Health problem orientated approach and measures, than just as a safety problem due to RTAs, as is currently done. This paper highlights the increasing problem of road traffic accident (RTA) related morbidity and ...
Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic
The impact of road traffic injuries could be enormous, affecting societies and individuals in different facets. Despite the prominence of Covid-19 disease in the current public health space, road crashes remain an important contributor to mortality. It is estimated that some 1.4 million people die from road crashes globally, with most of these being the youth, and people from developing ...
Causes Of Road Accidents In Ghana
Road accidents can also be attributed to over-speeding by drivers. The country experiences a lot of fatal accidents during occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and New Year. Because people travel home on such occasions to meet and reunite with relatives and friends. The drivers, taking advantage of the numerous passengers, drive at top speed in ...
Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic
Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences. Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences ... University of Ghana Medical School [email protected]. PMID: 33883755 PMCID: PMC8042801 DOI: 10.4314/gmj.v54i3.1 No abstract available. Publication types ...
PDF Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public Health Concern, and a Call
The head of the Ghana national road safety commission in analysing national RTA trend in Ghana fr, om 2000-2012 at a public forum, is quoted as saying RTA fatalities in Ghana is worse compared to death from dis- eases in that period [22]. This perception of Ghana 2000-2012 RTA trend and impact, is again re-enforced ina recent published paper [23].
Causes of road accident in Ghana
Statistics show that 60% of road accidents are caused due to drivers under the influence of alcohol as well as over speeding. However, bad condition of the road, poor maintenance of vehicles, disregard of traffic regulations by most of the drivers, and use of mobile phones while driving are the other causes of road accidents in Ghana.
Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road
According to the National Road Safety Authority, the lead public statutory body responsible for road safety management in Ghana, the main causes of road accidents in the country relate to adverse ...
Causes Of Road Accidents Cause And Effect Essay Example (300 Words
Fatigue driving is a known cause of road accidents by long-distance drivers. 10% of road accidents in Ghana are caused by drunk driving. Over-speeding constitutes about 50% of road accidents in the country. The poor nature of some of our roads has also often been cited as a cause for some vehicular accidents in the country.
Road Safety in Ghana
AFR. Sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana's Road Safety Country Profile. This road safety country data presents information on all pillars of road safety (management, roads, speed, vehicles, road users, and post-crash care), along with information on the current status for each country and region along with extensive information on key risk factors ...
Ghana: road traffic accidents 2020
Published by Statista Research Department , Dec 1, 2023. From January to October 2020, there were nearly 12,100 road traffic accidents in Ghana which involved over 20,400 vehicles. Moreover, the ...

Road traffic accidents in Ghana: contributing factors and economic consequences

Road Traffic Accidents in Ghana: A Public health Concern, And a Call For Action in Ghana, (and the Sub-Region).

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Contributing Factors to Road Accidents in Ghana

Nathaniel Gyimah

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Standard responses to road accidents haven’t worked in Ghana: here are some alternatives

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ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS TREND IN GHANA: CAUSING FACTORS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

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