By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, June 02, GNA — Mrs Pearl Adusu Sateckla, Public Relations Officer, National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says the consequences for not using two drivers for long journeys far outweighs the costs involved in employing the drivers.
She therefore urged Transport Unions and Operators to prioritise compliance to prevent dire implications on lives, property and the nation.
“When you refuse to comply, the loss you incur is more than the cost involved in adhering to the directive. You will end up losing the lives of people who would contribute to the country’s development. And when you flout any Road Traffic regulation to the extent of killing human beings, you’ll also not go scot free; you’ll be prosecuted, put behind bars and even stopped from driving your entire life. You may even lose your own precious life in the process,” she said.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Sateckla said during their monitoring exercises, some of the Transport Unions and Operators attributed the difficulty in adhering to the directive to budgetary constraints in employing two drivers for a vehicle.
However, she said, through intensified education and monitoring, adherence kept increasing and she commended the many operators already enforcing it.
The National Road Safety Authority, in 2021 issued a directive to all intercity bus operators that travel more than 500 kilometres or more than eight hours to engage the services of two drivers.
The move was to ensure that drivers did not drive whilst tired and minimise the risks associated with night driving.
The Public Relations Officer described the recent road crash at Gomoa-Okyereko in the Central Region as an alarming incident which called for intensified monitoring on the use of co-drivers for long journeys.
Six people have so far lost their lives after an Iveco Trakker Tanker loaded with Premix Fuel from Tema to Apam collided with a Neoplan bus loaded with 62 passengers from Liberia, heading towards Buduburam on Tuesday.
Mrs Sateckla said the Police helped to enforce compliance by apprehending, prosecuting, and sanctioning individual offenders, whilst the NRSA focused on the Operators and Unions.
“Our work is to monitor and sanction the Operators and Unions, but we help the Police by reporting any of such infractions we identify during our monitoring exercises. The difficulty in monitoring is that when the Unions get a hint that we are coming, they quickly put the drivers there, but when we leave, then they return to default,” she said.
She advised motorists to be extra careful on the roads, especially during the rainy season when the weather was foggier, and the roads were more slippery.
“This is the time your windscreen wipers should be working well; your mirrors and tires should be in good shape. Reduce your speed drastically because the more you speed, the more slippery the road becomes for you, and you can easily veer off at any moment.
Also, during traffic congestion, it is best to leave spaces behind vehicles so that other drivers will not splash water on your windscreens to prevent you from seeing properly,” she advised.
She urged road users not to mar the successes chalked in the reduction of road crashes since January 2022 and collectively aim for a single digit in road crash statistics.
GNA