Mr Obed Gyammera Antwi, the Upper West Regional Planning Manager of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), has urged transport operators to make conscious efforts to obey road traffic regulations to avoid unwarranted accidents on the road.
He said the festive season has been noted as the “cocoa season” for transport operators who want to cash-in on the desire of people to travel to other destinations for the festivities thereby flouting some road traffic regulations.
Mr Antwi said thin in Wa during a sensitization programme for transport operators in Wa including VIP, OA, VVIP, NEOPLAN among others as part of activities by the NSRA to implement the “Stay Alive” campaign.
Other stakeholders at the programme were the representatives of the National Insurance Commission, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Red Cross Society, the Ghana National Ambulance Services, Narcotics Control Commission, and the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service among others.
The Upper West Regional office of the NRSA had been meeting with various unions as well as the general public to sensitise them on the need to ensure sanity on the road by observing road traffic regulations at all times to help reduce the incident of road carnages, especially at the Christmas approached.
Mr Antwi entreated the transport operators to observe the speed limit, use the vehicle log book, and desist from the use of unapproved lamps.
He explained that the driver’s log book enabled them to determine the number of hours the driver used to cover a journey in order to check for overspeeding on the road.
“When you are travelling on a long journey, we advise that you stop to rest at least 15 minutes after four hours.
On a journey of more than eight hours, we advise you to adopt relay driving (having two drivers) so that after eight hours the second driver will take over because when you are tired while driving you can easily involved in an accident”, he added.
Mr Kwame Owusu A., the Upper West Regional Head of the NRSA, indicated that the authority and its partners would not hesitate to apprehend any driver found flouting the road traffic regulations after the sensitization.
He, therefore, appealed to the operators to cooperate with the NRSA by obeying the “rules of the game while on the road so that we can all be safe on the road.”
On his part, Mr Jonas Kansaabayel, an Ophthalmic Nurse with the Red Cross Society, observed that aside from the usual causes of road accidents, poor vision was a major cause but some drivers did not take note of that.
He cited Glaucoma and Cataract as major causes of eye defects but that they were noticeable saying, “If your eye is paining you will come for us to check and treat but with Glaucoma and Cataract they don’t pain so if you don’t go for check-ups you can’t know and the time you will realize you are blind”, he explained.
Mr Kansaabayel, therefore, encouraged the drivers to go for eye check-ups, at least once a year to ensure they had a good sight to operate.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Paul Boabeng Donkor, the Upper West Regional Commander of the MTTD, also corroborated the call by the NRSA for the drivers to obey road traffic regulations.
He said issues such as wrongful overtaking, use of unprescribed lamps, over-speeding, and drunk driving were some causes of road carnages and advised the transport operators against same.
While the NIC encouraged the transport operators to insure their vehicles against unforeseen circumstances on the road, the DVLA entreated them to ensure their vehicle registration and licenses were up to date before using the road as it was illegal to drive a vehicle with an expired license.
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