Close down unregistered driving schools -DVLA

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA - The Drivers Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA} has urged the Ministry of Transportation to close down unregistered driving schools.

The DVLA and the Ghana National Associations of Driving Schools (Ghanadrive) on Thursday said such schools had no standards and were dangerous to society since there were not doing the right thing. Mr Cecil Garbrah, President of Ghanadrive made the call at a launch of certificate for drivers who completed driving courses organised by the Ghana National Association of Driving Schools (Ghanadrive) He said the introduction of the certificate would create among drivers the need to learn the basics in driving.

Launching the certificates, Mr. Godfrey Bayon Tangu, Minister of State at the Ministry of Transportation said road accidents cost Ghana 110 million dollars each year, which represented 1.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.

He said the money could have been channelled into the Ghana Road Fund for road maintenance works.

He said 90 per cent of road accidents were due to human errors such as over speeding, fatigue driving, driving and talking on the phone, non maintenance culture among others and commended Ghanadrive for their effort to reduce the high rate of accidents in the country.

Mr Tangu said road safety should be seen as everyone's responsibility and noted that if drivers were trained properly they could contribute more positively to the reduction of road traffic accidents and their related consequences.

He said government was aware of the current on-going educational programmes by the driving schools adding that a committee made up of stakeholders in the industry had been set up to review and come up with a comprehensive standard syllabi for registered driving schools. Mr. Tangu urged drivers to be abreast with rules and regulations to make them efficient in their performance particularly during the CAN 2008 where the nation would be hosting lots of visitors. He said the legislative Instrument of Act 683 was before cabinet and would be enforced after its approval to instil discipline among pedestrians and drivers.

Mr David Adonteng, Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) said global statistics indicated that over one million people died every year and about ten times the number got injured in various degrees through road traffic accidents.

He said NRSC was working hard to make Ghana a nation with the safest road transportation in Africa by 2015, "where we expected to have single digit fatality rate comparably to the highly motorized countries."

Mr. Adonteng said NRSC was collaborating with the ministry of Transportation and DVLA and the Ghana Technical Training Centre to establish National Drivers Academy to provide advance training courses for driving schools instructors and drivers who want to upgrade their knowledge.