Report of the Incidence of Vehicular Accidents in New Juabeng Municipality

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Road accidents in Ghana have been identified as one of the major causes of deaths in the country. It is classified as the second major cause of death in the country following malaria. According to the road traffic crashes in Ghana statistics for the year 2009 by Building and Road Research Institute, shows that there were 12,299 road accidents for the year 2009, Afukaar et al (2009). There were total of 18,496 casualties with 2,237 of them losing their lives, while 6,242 sustained serious injuries. This reveals that there was an average of 6 deaths every day in Ghana which was caused by road accidents. The most dangerous part of it all is that most of the people who are killed by road accidents are those in the age group that constitute the work force of this nation. Vehicular accident in this country has become one of the growing concerns to most Ghanaians in recent times. This is as a result of the tremendous effect of accidents on human lives, properties and the environment. Many researchers have come out with the causes, effects and recommendations to vehicular accidents. These causes include drink driving, machine failure and over speeding, Sagberg, Fosser, and Saetermo(1997), National Road Safety Commission (2009) and Adams (1982). Yet every year the road safety commission, Ghana Statistical Service and other organizations would report an increase in vehicular accidents; Annual Report, National Road Safety Commission, Ghana (2009).