Tano South Municipal Assembly moves to curb road carnage with speed ramps

The Tano South Municipality in the Ahafo Region is taking decisive action to address a growing public safety crisis on its major highways.

For months, excessive speeding due to a lack of speed-calming measures has turned transit corridors in the area into hazard zones, causing severe crashes, loss of life, destroyed property, and immense strain on local healthcare facilities, particularly the Bechem Government Hospital.

Delivering his sessional address at the second ordinary meeting of the third session of the ninth assembly on Thursday, September 3, 2026, in Bechem, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Emmanuel Kwame Frimpong, noted that to address the persistent road safety threats, the assembly has approved the construction of speed ramps along high-speed corridors passing through major townships, specifically Bechem, Techimantia, and Dwomoh.

In addition to physical traffic interventions, the assembly is taking aim at local revenue leaks.

The MCE indicated that there will be a strict crackdown on unauthorized revenue checkpoints across the municipality, with a strong enforcement focus on Techimantia to ensure municipal tax collection is secure, legitimate, and properly accounted for.

According to global data from the World Health Organization, road traffic accidents cause approximately 1.19 million deaths each year, with excessive or inappropriate speeding identified as a direct factor in nearly one-third of all global road fatalities.

Africa faces the highest road traffic fatality rate of any continent, suffering approximately 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people despite holding only 3 per cent of the world’s registered motor vehicles, with unmonitored vehicle speeds serving as a main driver of fatal crashes.

In Ghana, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) records show that excessive speeding accounts for over 50 per cent to 60 per cent of all national road traffic collisions. Uncontrolled speeds on highways passing through rural towns and market centers account for thousands of severe injuries and fatalities annually across the country.

The consequences of unmonitored highway speeds spill over into every aspect of community well-being, healthcare, and economic security. The loss of life and severe injuries frequently target breadwinners and youth, devastating household incomes and leaving families without primary caregivers.

From an economic perspective, traffic crashes siphon away between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of developing nations’ annual GDP in medical bills, property destruction, and lost workplace productivity.

At the local level, severe highway collisions overstretch emergency resources at healthcare facilities like the Bechem Government Hospital, depleting blood banks, overwhelming trauma units, and straining daily medical operations.

Property damage is equally severe, as high-speed crashes routinely ruin vehicles, smash public roadside utility poles, and destroy private shops and structures along transit corridors.

Traffic safety studies across developing road networks confirm that physical speed humps and ramps are among the most immediate, cost-effective infrastructure upgrades for town-transit highways.

In Ghana, field research indicates that implementing properly engineered speed humps in township zones can reduce fatal and serious casualty crashes by 70 per cent to 77 per cent.

By forcing long-distance transit traffic to slow down from highway speeds of 80 to 100 km/h to safe settlement limits of 30 to 50 km/h, speed ramps give pedestrians, particularly schoolchildren, traders, and elderly residents a drastically higher survival rate when crossing main roads.

Complementing the assembly’s traffic and revenue initiatives, the Member of Parliament for Tano South, Charles Asiedu, highlighted major infrastructure progress for rural communities.

He emphasized that a total of 18 communities across the constituency, including Mansopa, Asikasu, Mawoaninso, Asuboe, Nyamebeye, Wuraponho, Bredi, Ninkyininkyi, Nsuta, Kyebi, Nyamebekyere, Asukoko, among others, are scheduled for connection to the national electricity grid.

Mr Asiedu stated that the electrification push is set to drive local commercial activity, provide power for students studying at night, and improve nighttime visibility to deter criminal activity across the municipality.