Geospatial analysis of injury severity on major roads in Ghana (2017-2020): implications for targeted injury prevention and control initiatives

Background: Road safety authorities in high-income countries use geospatial motor vehicle collision data for planning hazard reduction and intervention targeting. However, low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) rarely conduct such geospatial analyses due to a lack of data. Since 1991, Ghana has maintained a database of all collisions and is uniquely positioned to lead data-informed road injury prevention and control initiatives.

Methods: We identified and mapped geospatial patterns of hotspots of collisions, injuries, severe injuries and deaths using a well-known injury severity index with geographic information systems statistical methods (Getis-Ord Gi*).

Results: We identified specific areas (4.66% of major roads in urban areas and 6.16% of major roads in rural areas) to target injury control. Key roads, including National Road 1 (from the border of Cote D'Ivoire to the border of Togo) and National Road 6 (from Accra to Kumasi), have a significant concentration of high-risk roads.

Conclusions: A few key road sections are critical to target for injury prevention. We conduct a collaborative geospatial study to demonstrate the importance of addressing data and research gaps in LMICs and call for similar future research on targeting injury control and prevention efforts.