On the morning of Saturday, August 16, 2025, a packed sprinter bus with registration number GW-5535-24 travelling on the Accra-Kumasi road was involved in a road crash at Asuboi, claiming at least five lives on the spot. This is one of the many road crashes recorded at various parts of the country in recent weeks.
In the past weeks, about ten different road crashes have been recorded. Places like Sekondi, Oti, and Asamankese have witnessed high-impact vehicular crashes leading to the death of passengers and even passersby. The injuries range from mild to life-threatening ones, while the destruction to properties is estimated in millions.
The loud wails, the grief, and the trauma associated with these fatal crashes, victims confess, are very telling. But beyond the grief and trauma, there is a very critical subject that many have not given attention to. To put it simply, every crash on Ghana’s roads is a chip away at Ghana’s economic muscle.
The Numbers for 2025 are Staggering
Official figures from the Ghana Road Safety Authority show that, between January and June 2025, Ghana recorded 7,289 road crashes involving 12,354 vehicles, leading to 1,504 deaths and over 8,300 injuries. This represents a 22% rise in deaths and a 10% increase in injuries compared to the same period in 2024.
In the month of June, the Ashanti Region was the deadliest, with 60 deaths. followed by the Eastern Region (46 deaths) and Greater Accra (22 deaths). Motorcycle-related accidents dominated two- and three-wheeler crashes, accounting for 73% of such incidents in June 2025, while tricycles and bicycles contributed 24% and 2% respectively.
To break it down further, every single day in Ghana, 8 lives are lost to road crashes, 40 crashes occur across the country, 46 people are injured in these crashes, and 69 vehicles and motorcycles are involved in road crashes.
Take note that the above figures are from just January to June of this year. This means that if the figures are updated with the recent crashes recorded in the past two months, it is going to be worse.
Beyond the Grief and Agony – The Economic Cost
Conventionally, the focus after every fatal crash is the mourning of the dead. We console relatives, organize funerals, and memorial services. However, the impact goes beyond just another life lost. It has economic and financial implications for the living relatives and the larger Ghanaian economy.
Let’s consider some of the economic costs of these surging road crashes in the country
The Human Capital Drain
Ghana has a number of natural resource endowments. Talk of precious minerals, gold, lithium, manganese, etc, crude oil, timber, cocoa, arable land; Ghana has them in abundance. But arguably, they are not the important resources a country needs. The most important and expensive resource a country needs is its people. Human resources, especially when skilled, are the critical condition needed to put the natural resources to use.
Every life lost in a crash represents years of educational investment, apprenticeship, family sacrifice, and potential national contribution erased in an instant. Sadly, Skilled artisans, entrepreneurs, health workers, and students are among the daily casualties. This has a significant impact on the economy as new resources are required to train new ones to fill the gaps created.
Increased Dependency Burden
Many lives lost to road crashes are fathers, mothers, guardians, sponsors, among others. Many are financial pillars of a number of people who depend on them for their existence. Since casualties of the road crashes are mostly the active and working class people, their deaths result in the plugging of a financial hole for people who depend on them.
With the very high dependency ratio in Ghana, almost every death recorded in Ghana means someone has lost his/her means of survival. In other words, every death means a provider lost, a dream shattered, leading to deteriorating conditions and standard of living.
Property and Investment Losses
Properties are mostly acquired through various means such as loans, equity, among others. Destruction to properties through road crashes is staggering. Vehicles involved in crashes are often written off completely, wiping out investments for families and small businesses that depend on a single car or minibus for income.
Commercial transport operators who lease or finance their vehicles are left with debt obligations even after their assets are destroyed. Insurance payouts are limited, and many victims are uninsured altogether.
Additionally, public property, road furniture, guardrails, signage, and bridges often bear the brunt of these crashes. Replacing or repairing them diverts funds that could have supported schools, clinics, or infrastructure expansion.
Strain on Public Finances
Road crashes also trigger a ripple effect on the already limited public resources. The state, in the recent hike in road crashes, has to increase emergency response, hospital care, and rehabilitation for crash victims. This response from the state runs into millions of cedis annually.
This leads to the diversion of resources from other critical areas like maternal care and disease prevention to handle accident casualties. For a country already battling fiscal constraints, road accidents are not just a social problem but a severe macroeconomic burden.
The Threat to the Government’s Reset Agenda
President John Dramani Mahama and his government say they are on a “reset agenda.” Among others, this includes restructuring the economy, consolidating fiscal stability, and rechanneling investments into industrialization and job creation.
However, the recent surge in road crashes poses a silent threat. Every death, every disability, every destroyed property means the country is working harder just to stand still. It undermines labor availability, discourages investment confidence, and strains public finances, which are highly essential for the reset agenda.
The World Bank estimates that Ghana loses about 1.6% of its GDP annually to road traffic crashes. This is roughly equivalent to billions of cedis that could otherwise fund healthcare, education, or infrastructure.
Paths to Mitigation
Solutions to the road crashes are not abstract. All relevant authorities are abreast with the causes, effects, and nuances of the road crashes. However, it is important that we highlight some critical ones in the context of economic development for swift action.
Dual Carriage Roads
A significant number of fatal crashes occur on single-lane highways like Accra–Kumasi, Accra–Cape Coast, and Tamale–Bolgatanga. Expanding these into proper dual carriageways could drastically cut head-on collisions, which are often the deadliest.
Railway Development
A serious commitment to revamping Ghana’s railway system could ease the pressure on highways. Transporting goods by rail rather than overloaded trucks would not only reduce crashes but also lower road maintenance costs and enhance trade efficiency.
Technology
Technology and strict enforcement of speed limits, compulsory rest breaks for long-distance drivers, and the use of surveillance cameras on highways would deter reckless behavior.
Urban Transport Alternatives
Investment in reliable intra-city bus and light rail services could reduce reliance on unsafe, overcrowded minibuses (trotros) that dominate urban mobility.
The Bottomline
Many concerned Ghanaians and CSOs, such as the CUTS International, have indicated that the surge in crashes is not just a transportation issue. It is a national and economic emergency. Should the recent surge be left unchecked, it risks becoming a silent drain of Ghana’s development plans.
It is important that the grief of families, churches, and communities, who have buried loved ones in the past month, should not be in vain. Their loss must awaken government, policymakers, transport unions, and citizens to the urgent need for reform.
One factor that should motivate the nation to fight this menace is that every road crash avoided is not just a life saved, it is a business preserved, a teacher retained, a farmer protected, and a step forward in Ghana’s quest for a resilient economy.
