Upper West GPRTU seizes vehicles of drunken drivers

Wa, Jan 11, GNA - The Upper Regional Secretariat of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has embarked on a serious operation to weed out drivers, who do not comply with the road traffic regulations.

Under the operation, the leadership is banning drivers, who do not have valid documents such as roadworthiness, driving licences and valid insurance covers from driving out of the regional capital. They also seized vehicles of drivers, who took alcohol before driving and fined them before releasing their vehicles, when they became sober.

Mr Nuhu Mahama, Upper West Regional Industrial Relations Officer of GPRTU, who revealed these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Wa on Tuesday, attributed the incident free Christmas, New Year and Eid-u-Adha to the exercise, adding that, it would continue until drivers were used to the situation.

He said they have also intensified educational programmes on overloading and over speeding and hoped that such programmes would change the drivers to be law abiding.

Mr Mahama stated that their greatest challenge was the use of cargo trucks as passenger vehicles and promised that they would work hard to discourage such practice, as it had claimed a lot of human lives over the years.

The Industrial Relations Officer was however not happy with the way some porters were still maltreating passengers and said as soon as uniform was introduced, it would help identify the rude ones at the stations.

He commended the police for their effective collaboration with them to combat crime and misbehaviour among drivers and the public.