The Upper East Regional Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority in collaboration with the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) and the Road Safety Task Force, will carry out minimum mandatory checks on the Kumasi-Accra bound commercial buses and tracks.
The mock exercise is to help check indiscipline on the roads which leads to several road crashes and deaths from motorist and vehicles alike.
This was disclosed to GBCGHANAONLINE by the Upper East Regional DVLA Manager Muntawakil Abdulai in an interview in Bolgatanga.
He stated that, the exercise will involve all the relevant stakeholders such as the Regional Coordinating Council and the various Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) branches and will sort to check for commercial driver’s qualifications, adherence to fire and broken down tires, over loading, road worthiness among other related issues.
Mr Abdulai indicated that buses will only be checked at night from 6 pm to 9 pm once every week and in the morning from 2 am to 5 am to sanitize the commercial buses which they is problematic.
Mr Abdulai explained that, Valentine and Easter are all upcoming events that can trigger more accidents to the already exiting carnage on the roads which leaves much to be desired and if care is not taken, the situation can get out of hand.
He indicated that the President’s recent directive to enforce COVID-19 protocols means lives must be protected.
Hardly a day passes without the collusion of either a bus, track or motorist and the good citizens of Ghana cannot afford to lose their lives carelessly to avoidable accidents on our roads.
He added that DVLA is major stakeholder. Mr Abdulai stated that, though the DVLA does not have the power to arrest, regulation 158 of the LI 2180 has empower the DVLA to impound, prohibit the movement of both the vehicle and the driver off the road when the need arises.
He stated that but for COVID-19, DVLA officers were visible on the roads by their compliance and enforcement task force to ensure that roadworthy vehicles were on the roads.
Most of the issues found were indiscipline and recklessness on the part of some drivers and those that were cautioned, over eighty percent are compliant by providing seat belts now.
Story By: Emmanuel Akayeti
