According to local authorities, a a fatal road accident on Thursday in Ghana’s Central Region claimed at least 12 lives.
According to eyewitnesses, a truck struck a commuter bus after passing another car at a roundabout on the Cape Coast–Takoradi route.
Seven men and five women were killed, and their bodies have been left at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital for an autopsy.
An expanded inquiry into the accident has been launched by the police.
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.
Compared to 2021, there was a 4.67% reduction in crash incidents during the first five months of 2022 (January to May). Other important safety indicators improved too. Injuries were down by 4.98%; 347 fewer people got hurt on the roads between January and May 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
Deaths declined by 9%, from 1,250 people in January to May 2021 to 1,140 during the same period in 2022.
All the important safety indicators improved. This echoes figures from 2020, when crashes went down by 5.31%, injuries by 2.91% and deaths 14.58%.