By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, June 05, GNA – With immediate effect, commercial tricycle riders are not to take more than two passengers or risk arrest and prosecution, the Central Regional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTU) has cautioned.
Chief Superintendent Albert Fii Ochil, the Central Regional MTTD Commander, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), insisted that it was illegal to pick up more than two passengers, describing it as an overload.
He observed that the seats of the tricycle had been designed to take up to four passengers but maintained that the machine did not have the capacity to do.
He argued that the capacity of every vehicle was determined by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), citing the registration documents and the law.
“We are going to ensure that if you are going to do the Pragya, then you take two people in addition to yourself to make three because that is what the law permits.
“If you are caught with more than two passengers, you will be apprehended and charged accordingly,” he cautioned.
Chief Supt Ochil narrated how he arrested one Pragya with 11 passengers and sent the rider to court, indicating that the overloading was possibly accounting for many of the accidents being witnessed over the years.
He insisted that the law existed to protect the people and must be followed religiously whether it was reasonable or not.
“If you take more than the prescribed number, it means the machine will not have that capacity to carry them and so in case of anything, it will cause a major problem.
“It doesn’t have the capacity to carry that weight. The capacity is what the officers have determined and so let’s go by that instead of carrying four or five,” he maintained.
The MTTD Commander suggested that going forward, the tricycles would have to be modified to make space for only two passengers.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/Benjamin Mensah