In 1998, more than 1,600 people were killed and 11,000 injured in road accidents in Ghana. The actual numbers could be more. The total cost is estimated to be at least USD 300 million every year - and increasing. Road accidents occur as a result of several contributory accident factors and effective road safety plans involve joint efforts by many different stakeholders. The Government of Ghana acting through the Ministry of Transport and Communications has therefore established a National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) to develop, promote and coordinate the National Road Safety Strategy. The National Road Safety Strategy will be the main thread for NRSC's performance in the 5-year period 2001-2005. The purpose of the strategy is to break the upward trend in road accidents and create a basis for concrete, sustainable accident reduction towards 2010. The overall target is a 5 per cent reduction in road fatalities from 1998 as the base year to 2005 and a further 15 per cent reduction before the end of 2010; thereby Ghana can achieve the overall African road safety target of 20 per cent reduction by 2010. The targets correspond to a decrease from 1,600 fatalities in 1998 to 1,520 in 2005. The target for 2010 is 1,280 fatalities. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD no 207828. The reprints are also available at the web - http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart1.pdf ; http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart2.pdf and http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart3.pdf.
Abstract