193 die in accidents

Police authorities in Monrovia say they have recorded 193 deaths from a total of 1,053 car and motorbike crashes that occurred between January and September 2015.

In a road accident statistics released Monday, 2 November at the Liberian National Police Headquarters, Police Spokesman Sam Collins told reporters that “193 persons lost their lives from January to September this year just by accidents that involved motorbikes and vehicles.”

Some of these accidents he said happened at different points this year by cars colliding with each other in the tune of 551, or cars colliding with motorcycles, which also amounts to 119 incidences. “34 drivers died during the months under review and 1,070 persons got injured – different degree of wounds. Some people broke their legs, some people broke their hands, some lost their eyes in the process,” Mr. Collins added.

He said there have been 163 cases of cars hitting pedestrians on the road, compared to 63 cases of motorcycles hitting pedestrians and 68 cases of motorcycles colliding with each other during the same period.

Besides the 34 drivers that died in accidents, the Deputy Commissioner of Police disclosed that 302 others got injured, while 595 occupants also sustained injuries in accidents.

At least 175 pedestrians were said to have been involved in accident cases, but Mr. Collins noted that out of the total accident cases of 1,053, the police have only been able to send to court 200 cases so far.

At least 87 cases of “self-accidents” have been recorded, the kind of accidents where police say cars either run off the road, somersault or hit light poles without being hit by another vehicle, among others.

Collins attributes the reduction in motorcycle accidents to measures being implemented by the police, arguing that most of the accidents were earlier happening in the heart of the city on the Tubman Boulevard and Somalia Drive prior to the enforcement of restriction against motorbikes to certain routes, particularly the city center.

“Although there are times some of them violate the restriction… the number that are now coming in are far less than what we got in 2011, 2012 before the institution of the restriction,” he said.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by Jonathan Browne