The Chief of Ashaiman, Nii Annang Adzor, has charged drivers in the country, particularly those within the Ashaiman municipality to be vigilant on the road, especially on festive occasions.
He stressed the need to reduce over speeding and reckless overtaking to help save lives on the country’s roads and protect its human resource capital.
The chief told the Daily Statesman in an exclusive interview that festive occasions not serve as avenues to record more accidents in the country, saying “lives lost can never be regained”
Money
According to him, some drivers have a premeditated agenda to make more money during such occasions at the expense of the passengers they convey, knowing very well the season and the willingness of individuals, especially church leaders, to engage their services.
“Easter in Ghana is often accompanied by conventions here and there. As such, some drivers capitalise on it and end up killing precious lives. I would want to say this; if these drivers understand the true meaning of Easter, we will hardly hear any news about accidents on some of our major roads. We can’t continue like this as a country and expect some miracle to change the status quo,” he warned.
He urged the Motor Traffic Transport Department (MTTD) of the Police Service to intensify efforts aimed at checking reckless drivers on our roads.
“Life is priceless, and it behoves us as a people to protect it. I, therefore, want to ask the MTTD to intensify efforts in fishing out recalcitrant drivers who do not value human life. Let’s arrest and arraign them before court, and if they are found culpable, they will pay the penalty therein. That way, it will serve as a deterrent to other reckless drivers,” he stated.
Order
Nii Annang stressed the need for passengers to call reckless drivers to order during the course of the journey. He opined that this will put drivers on their toes so as to reduce any likely accident.
“I will urge passengers not to fall asleep immediately the driver moves. Endeavour to watch the driver carefully and indicate to him when you see signs of reckless driving. We need a collective effort to reduce the carnage on our roads, and certainly we can,” he indicated.
He urged the station masters of the various lorry stations across the country to be proactive in checking the state of vehicles before sanctioning them to convey passengers in order to create an enabling environment to protect the lives of passengers.
“Our station masters must be aware of the fact that their negligence can result in lots of deaths. Station masters must, as a matter of urgency, check vehicles before allowing them to convey passengers. When that is done, drivers will take good care of their vehicles and put in pragmatic measures to make their vehicles roadworthy,” he explained.
