Abstract:
Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are at a pandemic level all over the world.
Annually, road traffic crashes are responsible for 1.35 million deaths and 50
million injuries. In Ghana, annual RTCs account for nearly 2000 deaths and
about 15,000 injuries. Several countries have reduced the impact of road
traffic crashes through telematics-based insurance policy. In this type of
policy, the insurance company collects driving data such as speed,
acceleration, braking, and cornering behaviour using a telematics device
installed in the vehicle. There are several benefits associated with the use of
this innovative policy. However, despite the benefits, research to ascertain
whether stakeholders in the transport sector will accept the adoption of
telematics as a policy is limited in Ghana. The purpose of this research was to
assess the knowledge, awareness, and perceptions of insurance companies and
other road transport stakeholder institutions and related groups and their
willingness to adopt such a policy in Sekondi-Takoradi as part of the measures
to reduce road traffic crashes. The study used a qualitative methodology using
an exploratory research design. The study purposively sampled 13 non-life
insurance companies and six other transport stakeholder institutions and
groups and conducted in-depth interviews to collect data. The results reveal
among others that the majority of insurance companies and other transport
stakeholder groups in the metropolis are aware of telematics and ready to
adopt it as an insurance policy. The study, therefore, recommends that the
government of Ghana together with the major stakeholders should provide the
needed infrastructure and training to adopt and support the implementation of
such a policy.
