Fewer Crashes, More Deaths: Ghana's Speed and Okada Shift

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The Road Safety Paradox in Ghana

Ghana is grappling with a concerning road safety paradox. While the number of reported traffic crashes has decreased in some periods, the number of fatalities continues to rise, indicating a shift toward more severe collisions across the country. This troubling trend highlights systemic weaknesses in speed control, regulatory enforcement, urban planning, and emergency response after crashes.

According to data from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), between January and October 2025, reported road traffic crashes increased by 7.3%, from 11,127 to 11,935. The number of vehicles involved in these crashes rose by 8.0%, from 18,879 to 20,397. Meanwhile, fatalities surged by 19.2%, climbing from 2,038 to 2,429. Injuries also increased by 6.5% to 13,764, while pedestrian knockdowns went up by 3.9% to 2,062.

These statistics suggest that crashes are becoming more severe rather than just more frequent. The growing gap between the number of crashes and the number of deaths indicates that factors such as excessive speed, increasing motorcycle involvement, mixed traffic conditions, and weak emergency response are contributing to higher fatality rates.

Mr. David Osafo Adonteng, former Director-General of the NRSA, emphasized that speeding is one of the biggest challenges in road safety. “Speed, or what we call over-speeding, has become the lone ranger, killing people, maiming them, and destroying property,” he said. Despite global efforts to address this issue, progress has been minimal.

The severity of the problem was particularly evident in October 2025. Compared to October 2024, reported crashes declined by 8.1%, and the number of vehicles involved fell by 5.8%. Injuries dropped by 7.3%, and pedestrian knockdowns decreased by 14.0%. However, fatalities increased by 12.7%, rising from 221 to 249.

Mr. Dennis Yeribu, Principal Planning Manager at the NRSA, noted that Ghana is moving beyond policy declarations to practical interventions. “Engineers are deploying speed humps, rumble strips, and other traffic-calming devices. The NRSA is using education to speak to the conscience of drivers, while the police are on the roads with gadgets to check speed limits,” he explained.

Despite clear speed limit regulations—100 km/h on the Accra-Tema motorway, 90 km/h on highways, and 50 km/h in settlements—compliance remains low. “This is the most worrying signal in the data,” Mr. Yeribu added. “When fewer crashes still result in more deaths, it means survivability is low. Speed and vulnerability are the drivers.”

Accra, in particular, exemplifies the risks associated with poor urban planning and congestion. From Madina through Circle, buses, minibuses, trucks, private cars, motorcycles, tricycles, bicycles, and pedestrians all compete for limited road space. Dedicated lanes for bicycles or urban buses are largely absent, and weak shoulders, potholes, and roadside trading further narrow carriageways. Police checkpoints, intended to improve compliance, often worsen gridlock.

Urban planners point to unpredictable traffic flow, risky overtaking, and frequent conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians as major concerns. For Mr. Kwamina Fobi, a 73-year-old painter who commutes to Circle, today’s congestion contrasts sharply with the past. “In the 1970s and 1980s, roads were mostly untarred, but traffic was light and crashes were rare,” he said. “Now, it is too many cars and too little planning.”

Vehicle growth has intensified these pressures. As of mid-2025, Ghana had over 3.47 million registered vehicles, with about 149,000 new registrations between January and July 2025 alone. This growth reflects economic stabilisation and rising vehicle ownership. However, registrations are heavily concentrated in Accra and Kumasi, worsening congestion and elevating crash risk in already strained urban corridors.

One of the clearest patterns in the October 2025 data is the rise in motorcycle involvement. While commercial vehicle involvement fell by 4.38% and private vehicles by 16.23%, motorcycle involvement increased by 11.72%, from 529 to 591. Motorcycles accounted for 27.86% of vehicles involved in crashes that month, despite representing a smaller share of the national vehicle fleet.

Safety officials say motorcycles’ vulnerability, combined with high speeds and weak helmet compliance, helps explain why fatalities are rising faster than crashes. This has sharpened attention on Parliament’s passage of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to legalise and regulate commercial motorcycles and tricycles, commonly known as Okada, pending presidential assent.

Advocates, including Mr. Enock Jengre, Programme Officer and Rule of Law Specialist at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), say the reform offers an opportunity to reduce risk by bringing a large informal transport sector under enforceable rules. He warned, however, that weak implementation could worsen outcomes. “We welcome the decision to legalise Okada operations, but regulation must come before rapid rollout,” Mr. Jengre said.

Beyond enforcement, experts stress the need for road re-engineering to reflect Ghana’s mixed-traffic reality. Proposed measures include protected pedestrian crossings near markets and schools, traffic calming in dense urban areas, and pilot motorcycle lanes on selected corridors.

Prof. Williams Ackaah, Principal Research Scientist at the CSIR-Building and Road Research Institute (CSIR-BRRI), has estimated that road crashes cost Ghana about 1.6% of GDP annually, roughly 1.2 billion US dollars, through lost productivity, healthcare costs, and vehicle damage. “These costs divert resources from critical sectors like education and healthcare,” he said. “The loss of breadwinners also destabilises families and communities.”

Another concern is post-crash response. Safety advocates are calling for faster ambulance dispatch, clearer access on major routes, and stronger coordination between police, health services, and hospitals. In response, the NRSA has launched the Stay Alive Campaign, a national call-to-action urging all Ghanaians to become advocates for safer road use.

The campaign targets increasing road safety awareness to above 90% and reducing road traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths by at least 30%. Mr. Chemah Joshua Yaadang, Board Chairman of the NRSA, said the Authority was confident the targets were achievable. “Through continuous education, enforcement, and engineering improvements, supported by meaningful stakeholder engagement, Ghana can significantly reduce road traffic fatalities and create a safer, more efficient transportation system,” he said.

Institutional capacity remains a challenge. During a familiarisation visit to the NRSA in October 2025, the Deputy Minister for Transport, Ms Dorcas Affo-Toffey, was briefed on the Authority’s operations and constraints. NRSA Director-General Mr Abraham Amaliba called for urgent retooling of the Authority, citing inadequate funding, vehicles, and logistics. “The deaths on our roads are increasing, and action must be taken to bring the figures down,” he said. “We need more resources to do this, but we are constrained.”

Ms Affo-Toffey assured the Authority of government support and stressed the need to align road safety interventions with the government’s Reset Agenda. “We all use the roads, and if the roads are not safe, no one is safe,” she said. “We will do our best to keep people safe on our roads.”

For commuters like Mr. Fobi, the statistics translate into daily risk and lost time. For policymakers, they represent a test of execution. Ghana’s road safety challenge is no longer only about reducing crashes, Mr. Jengre noted, but about reducing the likelihood that a crash becomes fatal. As the country awaits presidential assent to the Okada reforms, safety agencies say success will depend on disciplined implementation, inter-agency coordination, and sustained political will. Without that, analysts warn, Ghana may continue to record fewer crashes, but more funerals.