170 persons perish in road accidents in the Eastern Region

Koforidua, Sept. 20, GNA-One hundred and seventy persons lost their lives in motor accidents in the Eastern Region between January and August, 2011 as against 160,in 2010, during the same period.

Superintendent James Sarfo-Peprah, Eastern Regional Police Commander of the Motor Traffic Transport Unit (MTTU), disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Koforidua on Monday.

He said he was saddened about the increase in road accidents in the region in spite of all the education and efforts being put in place to address the situation.

Giving details, Mr Sarfo-Peprah said 851 accident cases were recorded during that period involving 701 commercial vehicles, 382 private vehicles and 64 motor bicycles as against 880 recorded last year.

Mr Sarfo-Peprah said 1,388 people got injured during the period out of which 139 were knocked down, especially, along highways within major towns.

He attributed the high number of knocked down victims to failure of drivers to adhere to traffic regulations such as 50 kilometres per hour in towns and villages.

Mr Sarfo-Peprah said last year, his outfit instituted a number of measures on road safety to check accidents, especially in accident prone areas in the region.

He said a special exercise which his outfit started three months ago to reduce motor accidents in the region had started yielding positive results.

Mr Sarfo-Peprah cautioned that any driver found to have flouted traffic regulations which includes taking of alcohol would be severely sanctioned.

He assured the public that the Police would continue to undertake a lot of programmes for drivers and all other road users to ensure that accident cases were reduced in the region.

GNA