Some women on a tricycle, also called Aboboyaa
THE POLICE in the Upper East Region have warned commuters to desist from boarding tricycles to and from their destinations.
Upper East Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Fianko-Okyere, who disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE, said the tricycles are meant to cart goods, and not human beings.
He said a lot of accidents in the Bolgatanga Municipality and other districts in the region have involved tricycles which transported human beings in their carriages instead of goods.
In the Bolgatanga Municipality, it is common to see tricycles (Aboboyaa) overloaded with humans from satellite communities coming to various markets on market days.
The riders, mostly untrained and sometimes minors, ride carelessly putting themselves and the passengers in danger. Neither the riders nor the overloaded passengers wear helmets.
The Police PRO said a recent accident that occurred at Winkongo in the Talensi District has brought to the fore the need to stop the practice now, before it claims more lives.
“You realise that the many calls for sanity on our roads have been re-echoed in recent times as a result of some accidents that we have recorded involving these tricycles. In fact, on the Bolgatanga-Bawku road, there have been frequent accidents involving these tricycles and in many cases the passengers die because of the unsafe nature of that means of transport,” he intimated.
Meanwhile, the Upper East Regional Office of the Ghana Road Safety Authority has publicly endorsed the decision to stop the use of ‘Aboboya’ to transport humans.
According to the Assistant Regional Planning Officer of the authority, Seth Wiredu, the decision has come at the right time, considering the harm the tricycles have caused in the region.
He urged the police not to relent in the execution of the operation nor bow to public pressure, saying these two factors have been the reason many road safety campaigns have struggled to achieve their intended targets.
FROM: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga