11,000 Drivers undergo road safety training
Eleven thousand professional drivers drawn from 252 branches of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in the Greater Accra Region have started a two-day training on road safety and customer care to enhance their skills and knowledge.
Advertisement
The training, aimed at reducing the alarming number of accidents on the roads, is being organised by the Road Safety and Transportation Consultancies Limited (RSTC) and sponsored by the World Bank, DANIDA and the Government of Ghana.
The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) is facilitating the programme.
It forms part of a six-month project to train 40,000 drivers nationwide under the "Driving Management Science (DMS)" programme.
In an address, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the GPRTU, Mr Robert Sarbah, emphasised the relevance of equipping drivers with the skills and knowledge to drive safely to reduce fatalities and injuries.
He appealed to transport owners to release their drivers to fully participate in the programme to help inculcate in them a better vehicle maintenance culture to ensure safety.
The General Secretary of the GPRTU, Mr Stephen Okudzeto, urged professional drivers to update their knowledge on the types of vehicles they handled as new models were being introduced.
"The vehicle, the road design and the pedestrian are all incorporated into the driving profession and therefore, you must be abreast of all that is associated with the roads, " he said.
Other Trending Stories
The Chief Executive Officer of RSTC, Dr Godfred Akyea -Darkwah, said the rationale behind the training was to reduce the carnage on the roads.
He said the primary aim of the DMS project was to enhance the competence of drivers through attitudinal change which could impact positively on the overall performance of drivers.
''An average of 2,400 persons were killed through road accidents from 2006 to 2013. Fatalities on Ghanaian roads from 2013 to 2014 reduced by almost 200 deaths and we expect a further reduction in 2015," he said.
He explained that such reductions were attributable basically to the intensification of driver education and training programmes.