Africa is the globe’s least motorised region, accounting for just 2% of the world’s vehicles. Yet it records the highest rate of road deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) pegs the rate in Africa at 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people. South East Asia’s, the second highest rate in the world, hovers around 20.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
Ghana is among the African countries grappling with road traffic crashes. 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 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimate that the west African nation recorded 302,712 crashes involving 477,609 vehicles between 1991 and 2020. In 2016, the World Bank reported that Ghana lost 8.2% of its GDP to road traffic crashes.
