Need for continuous traffic education to reduce accidents — Road Safety Expert
A road Safety Expert, Dr Justice Amegashie, has called for continuous traffic education and training for commercial drivers to reduce road accidents in the country to the barest minimum.
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Available statistics indicate that about 75 per cent of national road accidents in Ghana are caused by commercial drivers due to road safety negligence, lack of adequate training and those driving ethics.
He, therefore, urged commercial drivers to always abide by the road safety regulations and desist from acts such as speeding that put their lives and those of their passengers in danger.
Dr Amegashie, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Transport Services Consult and a former CEO of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), made the call at the closing ceremony of a three-day training programme for commercial drivers from the Northern Region in Tamale, as part of efforts to help reduce road accidents in the country.
The training
The training, organised by the Northern Regional Secretariat of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) for its members, was to help the drivers improve their skills and knowledge to enhance quality customer service delivery, reduce driving risks and improve the skills of drivers on the right of way and defensive driving.
About 1,300 commercial drivers in the Northern Region benefited from the training, an initiative of the GPRTU in collaboration with Transport Services Consult, a road safety management company, with funding from the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) through its Skills Development Fund.
Enforcement of road regulations
Dr Amegashie also called for the enforcement of road regulations and stiffer punishment for those who used their mobile phones while driving to prevent accidents, adding that in the United Kingdom (UK) a legislation had been passed to impose a fine of 100 pounds on persons caught using their mobile phones while driving.
He urged drivers to have a change of attitude and remember to wear their seatbelts.
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“Fellow drivers, do we value our lives? If we do, how much value do we put on our lives? We have heard occupants of cars flying through the windshield as they either failed or refused to wear seatbelts; we still find occupants of cars not wearing seatbelts even though seatbelts are provided,” he stated.
Dr Amegashie also urged motorcyclists to wear their crash helmet, adding that crash and injury were not acts of God or Allah but they were predictable and preventable.
Sharing
The acting Northern Regional Chairman of the GPRTU, Alhaji Abubakari Alhassan, for his part, urged the participants to share the knowledge and skills acquired from the training with their colleagues who could not attend and gave an assurance that the union would ensure that the programme was sustained at all levels of the union in the region.
He added that the knowledge acquired by the drivers would go a long way to minimise accidents on our highways.
The Regional Monitor of the COTVET-SDF, Madam Fati Issahaku, said COTVET decided to fund the skills training programme for drivers to help reduce road accidents in the country and urged the drivers to apply the knowledge they had gained.
A facilitator for the training, Mr Joseph Amamoo, said over 40,000 commercial drivers were expected to be trained under the programme nationwide to help reduce road accidents and prevent the carnage on the roads, especially during this election year.
Some of the participants who shared their experiences, commended the GPRTU and the sponsors for the programme, saying that was the first time they were participating in a structured training programme for drivers.
They said the programme would go a long way to improve their driving skills and knowledge.
They also called for more of such training programmes for drivers to update their knowledge and skills to ensure safety on the road.