Kumasi, May 4, GNA - Mr Kwaku Oware-Boateng, Ashanti Regional Manager of the Road Safety Commission, has said in order to avert the menace associated with driving it was important to adopt a system where drivers are trained to fit the kind of cars they drive. "In order to marshal the challenges on our roads, drivers need to learn the mechanisms of their cars and road signs and apply them when necessary", Mr Oware-Boateng, told a meeting of tipper truck drivers in Kumasi on Sunday.

The meeting, organised by the Association of Sand and Stone, GPRTU and PROTOA Tipper Truck Drivers was aimed among others to educate the drivers, share ideas and socialise with other local station drivers and executives in the Ashanti region. It was attended by representatives of the local stations officers, police officers and insurance operators. Mr Oware-Boateng advised the drivers to develop the habit of locating and placing warning triangles at appropriate locations when their vehicles developed fault in order to avoid the threat it might pose to other road users.

The warning triangles, he said was capable of reducing accidents and should therefore, be effectively used by drivers to prevent unnecessary accidents.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Abraham Bansah, Deputy Commander of the Ashanti Regional Motor Traffic and Transport Unit, took the drivers through some guidelines designed to check truck drivers, saying that the police would arrest truck drivers who do not collect their waybill from pit owners and those who do not cover the sand with tarpaulin before moving trucks from the pit site. He noted that drivers with D-license and above were allowed to drive tipper trucks and spoke against "spare drivers" who normally did not have license.

Mr Peter Kwame Donkor, Chairman of the Association, encouraged the drivers to take the advice given them seriously, to improve the tipper truck business, and save them from accidents. He said by complying with the advice, it would enhance the image of the business.

He advised them to learn the road signs and behave responsibly while on the roads.