The Western Regional Command of the Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service says 90 to 94 per cent of road accidents are caused by human error.
Supt Isaac Sorkpah, the Regional MTTD Commander indicated, “This is a major factor that causes road accidents in the country.”
To this end he said, “We should all get a safety mentality when driving and using the road as pedestrians.”
The Regional MTTD Commander was speaking at a sensitisation programme organised by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) for haulage truck drivers on road safety and major road traffic regulations.
The drivers were mainly from the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality of the region.
He revealed that a total of 52 persons lost their lives through road crashes between January and May this year.
He also revealed that the creation of illegal speed ramps by community members also contribute to road accidents.
He mentioned that haulage truck drivers were critical stakeholders in the transport logistic chain within Ghana’s transport corridors.
He said his outfit was committed to regularly sensitise and equip the truck drivers on regulations that relate to their operations in order to ensure compliance.
Kwame Koduah Atuahene, Director, Regulatory, Inspectorate and Compliance of the NRSC stressed the need for the unions to allocate two drivers to vehicles which travel long distances of more than eight hours or 500 kilometers.
He said many road crashes could be attributed to stress suffered by drivers who seldom took time off to rest during such long journeys.
“It is not appropriate for one driver to drive that long distance. So we will ensure that transport unions bought into the idea of deploying two drivers to a vehicle,” he added.
During the open forum, most of the drivers identified poor nature of roads in the region as the major contributing factor to road accidents.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi