Ghana has reached a grim milestone in terms of road traffic accidents with 771 persons dying between January and March this year alone amid the ongoing pandemic.
This chilling revelation forms part of data collated by the Motor Traffic & Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.
This essentially means more people have died due to road carnage than the number of lives cumulatively claimed by the novel coronavirus since the country recorded its first two cases back in March 2020.
As of April 3, 2021, the Ghana Health Service put the mortality rate of the virus at 752.
However, the latest figures from the Police paint a rather unfortunate picture as road accidents within the first quarter surpass Covid-19 casualties so far with another 4700 suffering various injuries in the process.
These deaths represent a 29.58% increase from the same period in 2020. Out of the 4,009 cases reported, 2,476 involved commercial vehicles, 2,771 private vehicles.
Meanwhile, 1,583 of the road crushes involved motorcycles.
Regional Breakdown
The Ashanti Region leads the pack with 171 persons in road crashes while 1,064 others were injured. The Greater Accra Region followed closely with 146 deaths and 1,017 injuries. The Easter Region also saw some 127 deaths and 732 injuries in the same period.
Central, Savannah, Bono, and Upper East regions respectively follow in terms of the number of casualties.
The North East Region recorded only 3 deaths in the same period making it the area with the least number of lives lost to road accidents.