315 ROAD ACCIDENTS RECORDED IN B.A. IN 2008 (PAGE 34)

THE Brong Ahafo Region has recorded 315 road accidents, involving 448 vehicles with 108 casualties in 2008.
Six people were also killed instantly in the Tanoso township portion of the Sunyani-Kumasi highway, as a result of speeding by vehicles whose drivers sped off after the accidents, leaving the victims to their fate.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Paul Wesley Baah, Regional Police Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), who disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Sunyani, therefore, appealed to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), as a matter of urgency, to construct speed ramps or tables in the Tanoso township portion of the Sunyani-Kumasi highway to check speeding which had resulted in the death of six pedestrians.
According to him, the Tanoso township portion of the Sunyani-Kumasi road had become an accident-prone area and, therefore, appealed to all road users, especially drivers plying the highway to observe the 50 kilometre per hour speed limit when entering the town, and urged pedestrians crossing the road from that area to also exercise a lot of caution.
Mr Baah also gave the assurance that in the absence of the speed ramps, the Regional Police MTTU would continue with the routine speed checks on that portion of the highway and other accident-prone areas in the region to prevent accidents.
He cited the Afrisipakrom portion of the highway, which is also an accident-prone area, especially where the GHA constructed speed ramps. He said after the construction of the ramps, no accident had occurred in that area.
Giving further statistics on road accidents in the region, he said out of the total of 315 road accidents which occurred last year, 67 were serious (head-on collisions), while a total of 457 persons sustained various degrees of injury.
Fatal road accidents in the region were recorded on the Techiman-Kintampo road and the Sunyani-Kumasi highway from Tanoso to the Bechem Nkwanta portions of the road, where some vehicles killed pedestrians, he added.
Touching on some of the traffic offences in the region (for last year), Mr Baah disclosed that a total of 369 cases were reported, out of which 107 were sent to court, with 64 of them being convicted and the offenders fined a total of GH¢10,746.
He stated further that 10 people were discharged by the court, while a total of 260 cases were still under investigations. A hit-and-run driver was jailed for 12 months by the court.
Mr Baah appealed to drivers plying roads in the region to obey the road signs and markings, saying ‘drivers must follow the language of the road to avoid accidents. “He also urged pedestrians to be extra careful when using the road; you must always look left and right before crossing the road.”