Judiciary urged to facilitate road offence prosecutions

Justice Dennis Adjei, President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana, at the weekend appealed to the judiciary to facilitate speedy prosecution of road traffic offence to bring sanity on the road.

He said the role of the police in the prosecution process was very paramount and entreated them to gather their facts well for the judges to facilitate prosecution.

Justice Adjei, who is Justice of the Court of Appeal, made the call at the opening session of a day’s workshop on the new road traffic regulation, 2012 Legislative Instrument (LI 2180).

The workshop was jointly organised by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and the Judicial Training Institute with funding from the European Union.

It was attended by judges, lawyers and the police drawn from Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Brong-Ahafo regions and aimed at sensitising participants on the Instrument.

Justice Adjei said the alarming rate of road crashes and fatalities needed a radical approach from the police and the judiciary as well as all key stakeholders in the transport industry to tackle.

He said when harsh sentences were imposed on road traffic offenders it would inculcate discipline of the law in the people, especially drivers, and bring sanity on the road.

Justice Adjei expressed worry that negligence on the part of drivers was a leading cause of road crashes in the country.

Ms. Mary Obiri-Yeboah, Executive Director of the NRSC, said road safety had assumed a humanitarian crisis globally and had become developmental issue nationally.

She said the 2000 deaths recorded every year in the country as a result of avoidable road crashes called for a multi-facetted approach and support from law enforcement agencies and all stakeholders.

She was optimistic that participants will, apart from gaining an in-depth understanding of the new regulations, also appreciate the specific roles and challenges of the various stakeholders including the NRSC that worked to ensure road safety.