NRSA, 5 agencies Train Commercial Drivers in Ho

By: Daniel Yao Akpabli | ignewss – Ho, Ghana

The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), in collaboration with key road transport and law enforcement agencies, has organised a one-day Road Safety Education and Training (ROSET) programme for commercial drivers in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, as part of efforts to reduce road traffic crashes and fatalities in Ghana.

The programme, held under the Presidential Initiative on Road Safety, brought together the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana National Association of Driving Schools (GhanaDrive), the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU).

The training targeted drivers of high-occupancy vehicles, long-distance passenger transport operators and other high-risk commercial drivers in the region.

Speaking at the programme, the Volta Regional Director of the NRSA, Engineer Kwesi Yirenkyi, said a four-year analysis conducted by the Authority had revealed a worrying trend of road traffic fatalities and injuries in the region.

According to him, the analysis suggested that an average of two people died and seven others sustained injuries in road crashes in the Volta Region almost every day.

He further cited an increase in road crash fatalities between September 2018 and September 2019, stressing the need for collective action to address the situation.

The Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Reverend Johnson Avuletey, described the training as timely, particularly as the country approached the festive season, when demand for road transport typically increases.

He called on stakeholders to put aside political differences and work together to improve road safety.

“We should stop playing political games with our road issues. All stakeholders have to rise up; otherwise, things will get worse when we sit idle,” he said.

Reverend Avuletey noted that road transport accounted for approximately 95 per cent of passenger and goods movement in Ghana, making safety interventions critical to protecting lives and property.

He said the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) expected the retraining programme to help reduce road crashes across the Volta and Oti regions.

The initiative was expected to retrain about 300 drivers, including operators of high-occupancy passenger vehicles, goods-carrying vehicles and other commercial transport services.

The Deputy Regional Minister also expressed hope that the training would reinforce the requirements for refresher courses for commercial drivers under the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012, and promote positive behavioural changes among road users.

He emphasised that road safety was a shared responsibility and urged authorities to extend public education to motorcyclists and commercial tricycle operators, whose activities, he said, presented additional challenges to road safety.

He further appealed to drivers and passengers to prioritise safety during the festive season and urged the media to intensify public education on responsible road use.

The Municipal Chief Executive of the Ho Municipal Assembly, Prosper Pi-Bansah, said the persistent rate of road crashes across the country remained a major concern.

He described the loss of lives through preventable road crashes, particularly during Christmas and Easter festivities, as unacceptable.

Mr Pi-Bansah said the establishment of the Presidential Initiative on Road Safety by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reflected the government’s commitment to addressing the problem through coordinated action by relevant stakeholders.

Although the intervention was yielding some positive results, he said more needed to be done to reduce road traffic crashes and prevent further loss of innocent lives.

He urged participants to take the training seriously, ask relevant questions and apply the knowledge gained to improve their conduct on the roads.

Meanwhile, the Volta Regional MTTD Commander, Chief Superintendent Victor Oduro Abrokwa, called for tougher sanctions against drivers who engage in dangerous driving.

He argued that the existing penalties for certain traffic offences were not sufficiently deterrent to curb reckless driving.

According to him, imposing fines alone might not adequately address the problem, and authorities should consider additional sanctions, including the suspension or seizure of the driving licences of offenders, in accordance with applicable law.

“If the court can fine the offender and also invoke his or her licence for, say, a year or two, it can serve as a deterrent to other drivers. But fining just a few cedis alone is not punitive enough,” he stressed.

Chief Superintendent Abrokwa also called for intensified public education to ensure that drivers, pedestrians and other road users understood and complied with road safety regulations.

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Road Safety Foundation, Togbi Hodzi Dunyo, urged the relevant authorities to urgently remove unauthorised speed ramps on highways.

He warned that additional unauthorised speed ramps could be erected during the festive season, potentially worsening existing road safety challenges.

He therefore called for stronger enforcement and coordinated action to ensure that road infrastructure met approved safety standards.

The training forms part of broader efforts to improve driver behaviour, strengthen compliance with traffic regulations and reduce preventable road crashes and fatalities across the country.