Tema, Nov. 24, GNA – Mr Abraham Koomson, Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) has called on the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to take road safety education to companies.
Mr Koomson made the call when he took his turn at the Ghana News Agency-Tema, and the Tema Regional Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD)’s Road-Safety Campaign Platform aimed at using various personalities to reach out to their members with the need to contribute to making Ghana’s roads safe for all users.
He observed that issues of road crashes affected companies and labour in diverse ways as it deprived not only organizations but the country as well of the needed experienced man power.
He recalled how a company he was working with had two of its staff buses got involved in serious accidents on two occasion causing a lot of financial burden to the company leading to it coming up with a policy to drop the workers at vantage places after work to find their own transportations back home to avoid further road crash occurrences.
Mr Koomson said in light of that the NRSA must meet management of organizations to draw a plan for them to engage workers and company drivers on their responsibilities to make the road safe as everyone was a road user in one way or the other.
He said it was not enough for officials of the NRSA to embark on radio and television education as there was the need to also take it closer to the companies revealing that most company drivers after acquiring their licenses and gaining employment do not go for any refresher causes on driving.
Mr Koomson also asked company drivers to take responsibility of their safety and that of the staff they carried by ensuring that the vehicles they used were in proper shape and drawing management’s attention to any mechanical or electrical issues and other faults that needed to be fixed before conveying workers.
“As a transport officer with TTL, I don’t move a car even when I have problems with my mirror how much more tyres, brakes, I will tell you I won’t drive until it is fixed,” he recalled.
He also urged unions to develop interest in the type and state of transport workers were provided to ensure that their members do not have their lives cut short due to avoidable road crashes.
Meanwhile, the GNA has observed that some companies in Tema provided vehicles which could best be described as “scrap on wheels” to convey their workers to and from work.
One of such vehicles belonging to an Indian Company in the Tema Industrial area was recently impounded by the NRSA when they chanced on it during a road inspection exercise on the Tema Timber market road conveying workers from Tema Newtown to its premises.
The said vehicle had its engine which was inside the vehicle emitting smoke when it was ignited, its ceiling was falling off, windows removed, seats unstable, and the entire bus was rusty.
According to the workers, they had complained to management about the condition of their bus, but nothing had been done, adding that because they had no other alternatives they board it like that and got soaked with water whenever it rained and they were sitting in it.
GNA