Every morning in Ghana, parents leave home with the simple prayer of returning safely to their families, but some never do.
Children board buses with laughter and excitement, only to be brought back in silence, their lives cut short on the nation’s dangerous roads.
These tragedies have become a haunting rhythm across Ghana. In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 1,500 people lost their lives in road crashes.
Behind that number are faces, stories, and futures erased in an instant.
The Road That Swallowed a Family
In June, a mother and her three children set out on what should have been an ordinary trip. They never made it home.
A truck swerved to avoid a pothole and crashed into their vehicle, ending four lives in one violent moment.
The family’s home in the Central Region now stands quiet, with toys and schoolbags that will never be used again. (My Publisher June 20, 2025 )
A Nation in Mourning
These stories repeat themselves daily. A 19-year-old lost his life when a loaded tipper truck veered into stationary vehicles.
In Bibiani, a timber truck overturned, crushing a woman as she waited by the roadside.
On the Accra–Kumasi highway, a collision between a fuel tanker and a Sprinter bus killed 11 passengers in April. May brought fresh grief when another crash on the Kumasi–Tamale road at Yeji claimed eight more lives.
Eight people die every day on Ghana’s roads. Each death leaves behind parents, children, friends, and colleagues struggling to make sense of sudden loss.
The Roads Themselves Kill
Beyond driver error lies another enemy: the roads themselves. Faded markings in Lapaz, Asylum Down, and Kaneshie leave drivers confused.
Highways like Accra–Cape Coast and Accra–Aflao, scarred with potholes and poor lighting, have become death traps.
Speeding adds to the chaos. In the Central Region, 60 percent of crashes are linked to reckless speed. Overloaded trucks, tyre bursts, and broken-down vehicles left on roadsides all combine to create a landscape of danger.
The Aftermath Nobody Sees
The pain does not end at the crash site. Hospitals fill with the injured, stretching doctors and nurses beyond their limits.
Families sell land, businesses, and personal belongings just to pay medical bills or bury loved ones. Children are forced out of school when breadwinners die.
Economically, the country bleeds. Productivity is lost, healthcare resources are drained, and investors hesitate to pour money into regions branded as unsafe.
But the deepest wounds are personal—the empty chairs at dinner tables, the birthdays never celebrated, the dreams cut short.
What Must Change
Ghanaians know the solutions, yet implementation drags. Roads must be repaired, especially those marked by frequent tragedies.
Clear signage, working streetlights, and safe pedestrian crossings must become standard, not luxuries. Drivers who gamble with lives by speeding or overloading must face firm enforcement.
Communities can play a role too—reporting dangerous spots, demanding accountability, and refusing to normalise reckless driving. And government must commit to long-term planning with durable roads that withstand rain and heavy use.
The Soil Has Absorbed Enough Tears
Every funeral, every wail at a roadside crash, every child who grows up without a parent adds to a national grief too heavy to bear. Ghana has achieved progress in many sectors, but its roads remain stained with blood.
The tears on Ghana’s soil are not just statistics; they are broken families, shattered futures, and lost potential. The nation cannot afford to treat road safety as an afterthought. The time has come for urgent, united action.
Until then, every journey feels like a gamble, and every pothole, every faded road marking, and every reckless driver could be the start of another tragedy. Ghana’s soil has absorbed enough tears—it is time to protect the living.
Source: Larry Ato Bonney
