Drivers urged to learn driving rules
The Commander of the Ashanti Regional Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), Chief Superintendent, Mr Peter Gyimah, has charged operators of driving schools in the region to include the study of road traffic rules and regulations in the syllabi to equip the drivers with the requisite driving skills.
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He said this would help to curb needless accidents on the country’s roads.
The Commander made the call at a one-day orientation programme organised by the Ashanti regional office of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) for driving school operators in Kumasi.
Operators of driving schools in Kumasi have observed that the syllabi that was being used in training learners was outmoded and, therefore, made it difficult for them to pass written examinations conducted by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA). As a result, the operators have called for an upgrade of the curricula used by driving schools.
Chief Superintendent Gyimah said road crashes in the region had reduced due to the police visibility programme introduced by the service.
He said the Road Traffic Act 2004, sub-section 683, should serve as a guide on how licences were issued to people learning to drive.
He has, therefore, urged driving schools to teach road traffic rules as part of their training programmes in order to prevent incompetence in driving.
The Act stipulates that: “A learner's driving licence shall not authorise a person, prior to that person passing a test of competence to drive on the road a motor vehicle of any class except where that person has successfully completed an approved training course for motor vehicles of that class or is undergoing training on such a course and is driving the motor vehicle on the road as part of the training.’’
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The Ashanti Regional Director of the NRSC, Mr K. Boakye, said that the programme was organised with the view to making driving school owners aware of the need to include the study of road traffic laws in their school curricula.
He said his outfit was using an aspect of 80 per cent enforcement and 20 per cent education to help bring down the spate of road accidents in the region.
Mr Boakye said road safety was a shared and collective responsibility, hence the need for every Ghanaian to ensure that the country’s roads were accident-free.