Artisans in Ashanti trained on seat belt fixing

enforcement of the compulsory use of seat belts for all commercial vehicles in the country is to begin on December 1, 2015.

This is to ensure that the nation’s roads would conform with international standards in terms of road safety and also reduce fatalities on the roads.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Mr Rudolf Beckley, who announced this, said fixing of seat belts into all commercial vehicles in the country would begin on June 1, 2015.

He announced this at the closing session of a two-day training workshop in Kumasi for 85 artisans from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and the three northern regions.

The artisans were taken through lessons on the concept of seat belts, the skills they needed to fix them as well as other issues in relation to the development of road safety and their contribution towards road safety in the country.

This brings to 165 the number of artisans across the country trained to help in the fixation of seat belts in all commercial vehicles in the country.

The Parliament of Ghana in 2012 passed the Legislative Instrument 2180 which makes it mandatory for all commercial vehicles to have seat belts by December 2015.

Support

A Spanish technical team had been on hand to train the artisans in the country on how to fix the seat belt.

Mr Beckley said in the interim, seat belts would be sold to vehicle owners at all offices of the DVLA.

He explained that his outfit was liaising with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the National Vocational Training institutes in the country to come up with models of seats to be fixed into commercial vehicles to ensure that the laid-down standards would be accepted and used by all.

The CEO said this would ensure that seats of the right standard were produced in the country as well as ensuring the uniformity of the seat belts to avoid any kind of effect for the users in the country.

“Now that the training of the artisans is over, my outfit is going round all the garages to monitor and certify those who will qualify to fix the new seat belts to avoid any shoddy job from any garage,” he said.

Education

Education on the need to fix all commercial vehicles with seat belts started in 2014 by the DVLA, National Road Safety Commission and others.

The Ashanti Regional Commander of Police, Mr Nathaniel Kofi Boakye, said the Ghana Police Service was ready to enforce the law when the time was due to ensure compliance in the country.

He said the Ashanti Region recorded 40 deaths through accidents last year and attributed this to non-compliance with road regulations by the various stakeholders in the country.