MTTU worried about road accidents in Ashanti

Deputy Superintendent of Police (ASP) Augustine Gyening, Ashanti Regional Commander of the MTTU, has expressed concern about increased road accidents in the region.

He said between January and February this year, 367 cases were recorded resulting in 69 deaths and 333 injuries.

There were 383 resulting in 58 deaths and 325 injuries in the first quarter of 2002.

Mr Gyening was addressing members of the Ashanti Regional Road Safety Committee and leaders of the various transport unions in the region, with the exception of the GPRTU.

He said stringent measures were to be instituted to check the spate and called on stakeholders in the transport industry to come together to discuss strategies to curb accidents.

Mr Gyening attributed the accidents to recklessness, inexperience, excessive speeding and the refusal to obey traffic regulations and said the Police was to mount an exercise to arrest drivers for traffic offences.

He said some drivers licensed to drive private cars were using commercial vehicles and appealed to the transport unions to check drivers who applied for their membership.

The Unions should also issue stickers to their members to ensure easy identification and to fill the passenger identification forms for vehicles travelling beyond 30 kilometres for easy identification of victims in case of accidents.

Mr Gyening attributed some of the accidents to lack of parking spaces on roads and the erection of many signs posts at intersections, which obstructed the view of drivers.

The MTTU Regional Commander said 33 million cedis, was collected between January and February this year as fines from offending drivers.

Mr Michael Andrews Appiah, Regional Chairman of PROTOA, appealed to the Ministry of Roads and Transport to consider establishing drivers training schools to train drivers to prevent accidents.