Abstract:

Road safety has become a global issue of concern and concrete effort needs to be espoused at the ground level to dwindle the thousands of lives being lost in road traffic accidents around the world. The present study was conducted to dissect factors contributing to impair driving in Ghana; a case study of the Ashanti region of Ghana and scan the association between impaired driving and road traffic accidents. Cross-sectional study design was used. Questionnaire, alcohol breathalyzer test and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Simple random and convenient sampling methods were used to select participants, who were made up of motor vehicle users, Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority, Motor Traffic and Transport Department and Ghana Private Road Transport Union. The study participants were 216. 96% of the study participants were males. The average age of the respondents was 45.5. Distracted driving, drugs driving, drunk driving, emotions and fatigue driving were the major causes of impaired driving. 74% of the subjects practice drunk driving. The study found that, drunk driving, fatigue and distracted driving were the major causes of road crashes. Drunk driving causes almost 40% of road traffic accidents and it is related to over speeding. Driving while using a cell phone is the major cause of distracted driving. Most of the motor vehicle users continuously drive more than 8 hours. Loss of lives and property damages are expected to continue if suitable corrective measures are not put in place to peter out the problem.

Keywords: impaired driving, road crashes, safety measures, enforcement.

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