Regional News of Monday, 12 January 2015

Source: GNA

250 killed in car crashes in Ashanti Region

A total of 250 people were killed in car crashes in the Ashanti Region, last year, while 1,423 others, suffered various injuries.

Compared with the 2013’s figure of 280 deaths with the number of injured persons standing at 1,495, there was a reduction in the fatality rate.

Mr. Thomas Wisdom Boakye, the Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), who provided the statistics at a press briefing in Kumasi, said the period saw 233 pedestrian getting knocked down by vehicles, motorbikes and bicycles.

He noted that most of the accident deaths could have been avoided given timely rescue and proper professional handling of the victims.

This, he said was one area serious attention should be focused on, going forward.

Mr. Boakye spoke of the need for people to quickly call in the Ghana National Fire Service and the National Ambulance Service – the appropriate rescue operation teams during such emergencies.

He condemned the insensitivity of some individuals, who instead of making efforts to get emergency aid for the crash victims, resort to taking pictures with their smart phones to post these on the social media.

He said there are yet others, who take advantage of such unfortunate situations to steal from people, instead of providing assistance to them and condemned their depravity.

Mr. Boakye reminded drivers to be more cautious and to ensure that they paid due regard to road traffic laws to make the roads safe.

He asked them to avoid speeding, drunk-driving and over loading of their vehicles.