The Ghana Association of Driving Schools yesterday held a consultative meeting with transport operators to brainstorm safety on our roads.
According to the association, statistics from the Motor Transport and Traffic Department of the Ghana Police Service (MTTD) and National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) revealed that fatalities on the country’s roads was worrisome, though there has been a drop of seven per cent during the third quarter of the year.
According to the NRSA, the third quarter of last year (2018), witnessed 1,770 deaths on the road as compared to 1,580 death this year.
This, it explained was due to improper driver training, speeding, poor eye sight, bad driver attitude and poor roads network, hence the government’s commitment to properly train drivers.
The chairman of the association, Ali Wahab, said proper driver training was key to reduce the canker on our roads and lamented that lives were being lost daily through road crashes.
“Driving is a professional business which required adequate training and gone are the days that drivers are trained at the car washing bays and workshops.
He noted that the Legislative Instrument (LI) 2180 should be strictly enforced as it mandates every driver to undergo 48 hours basic driving lessons to be certified and given a licence.
“Our association is aimed at educating, creating awareness and sensitising drivers before, during and after the Christmas festivities to reduce road crashes and I advise the public to desist from unauthorised system of training to avoid churning out half baked drivers from mushroom driving training institutions.
“To ensure strict compliance, the executives of the association would visit the various lorry parks and bus terminals to sensitise, educate and create awareness for commercial vehicle drivers to obey safety rules and regulations,” Mr Wahab stated.
