Abstract
The road traffic accident (RTA) is a global misfortune and the leading cause of death among young drivers. In safeguarding and developing innovative safety strategies to curtail the situation, the factors causing this menace needs proper attention and investigation. The objective of this study is to identify the potential factors responsible for causing a traffic accident in Ghana. In studying these factors extensively, a descriptive study with quantitative technique was employed. Analyses used data between 2001 and 2011 obtained from the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) with specific focus on the age, drinking, vehicle defect, driver/rider error, injury, road surface type and weather. A total of 200,528 cases of drivers/riders were analysed and discovered that, people with younger age (21-40) contribute 62.97% of total crashes. Crashes reduce steadily as drivers/riders age increases. Also, the vehicle defect analysis shows that 87.46% of accidents cannot be linked to the fault of the vehicle before incidence, while the majority (75.38%) of drivers/riders had no injury during a traffic accident. Higher number of fatalities are recorded on tar good roads (81.57%) and clear weather (91.75%). The fight against this canker by the authorities must consider periodic refresher courses for younger drivers/riders on traffic law to bring to bear the adherence of good driving/riding principles and attitudes to ensure that safety is guaranteed for all road users in the country.
Highlights
It is an undeniable and indisputable fact that road traffic accidents are a tragedy and a great ordeal for national development, especially in less developed Nations
The vehicle defect analysis shows that 87.46% of accidents cannot be linked to the fault of the vehicle before incidence, while the majority (75.38%) of drivers/riders had no injury during a traffic accident
The analysis shows that traffic accidents often occurr under good weather conditions which contradicts the (WHO, 2004), world report on road traffic injury prevention, which says that poor visibility of both pedestrians and vehicles are very cumbersome, especially in the low and middle income countries and that road crashes among road users are mostly influenced by poor visibility
Summary
It is an undeniable and indisputable fact that road traffic accidents are a tragedy and a great ordeal for national development, especially in less developed Nations. The road traffic injury is a global phenomenon and a leading cause of death among young drivers of cars or ride motorized two-wheelers. The rate of death is higher, among teenagers and males. A case-control study, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2009 established that one third of all traffic accidents comprising young drivers should have been controlled if they had been restricted to driving with no more than one passenger (WHO, 2009). The rate is highest for new drivers during the first few months driving on their own. The statistics show that the likelihood of new or the first six months of solo driving involved in the fatal accident is 8 times higher than older or more experienced drivers. The younger and freshly licensed drivers, have reasonably limited alcohol-related crashes, while older and more experienced teenagers and young adult drivers have more of aforementioned crashes than adults do
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