A research fellow at the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Isaac Botchey believes the time has come for Ghana to begin tackling the increasing rate of road traffic accidents as a public health challenge.
This he says will help reduce the severities of injuries and deaths that arise from such unfortunate occurrences.
Speaking on the Business Edition on the Citi Breakfast Show, Isaac Botchey urged stakeholders within the country’s transport and health space to prioritize the various levels of preventing carnage on roads with a focus on better road monitoring practices and data management.
“There are discrepancies in the numbers but there are discussions on how to improve our surveillance system so that we can record and capture road traffic accident deaths so that we do not have to do modelling. But when it comes to road crashes and deaths, we need to see it as a public health problem. I think that there are no disagreement and consensus that this is a public health problem, and we need to tackle it. If you look at it from the public health approach, there is the primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention”.
In furtherance, Mr. Botchey warned against the disregard for speed limits and the wearing of other safety gears such as seatbelts and helmets.
He underscored the need to give full adherence to the approaches of road safety to boost emergency medical supplies and enhance the capacity of health professionals to facilitate the rehabilitation and recovery of affected persons.
There are growing concerns about the recent spate of road crashes, some of which have resulted in the death of passengers.
While some have attributed the unfortunate development to indiscipline on the part of drivers, others believe it is due to the lack of enforcement of road safety regulations.
Some of the major ills that have been brought to the fore in terms of road safety issues in Ghana have included the lack of streetlights and speeding by drivers.
