The broken down MTTD vehicle
AUTHORITIES AT the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service in the Bono Region are finding it difficult to manage road traffic and safety across the region due to lack of service vehicle.
The only service vehicle provided to the unit since 2012 has broken down beyond repairs, and this is affecting operational duties. The unit, according to the Acting Commander, does not even have patrol motorcycles to aid their movement. The Regional MTTD office which supervises all motor traffic offences and takes care of accidents during the day and night has to dwell on benevolence of the driving public to carry out all these important duties.
ASP Joseph Twum, the 2IC of the regional MTTD, revealed this in a conversation during a fact-finding mission into an accident which occurred at Nsoatre and killed a pedestrian in the Sunyani West District of the region.
He explained that police investigators find it difficult to travel to accident scenes to carry out investigations, especially in the night. “When we visit accident scenes most times, it is difficult to convey the dead to hospitals because the district ambulances don’t carry dead bodies. At best they may carry the injured but not the dead,” he stated.
He disclosed that the broken down Navara vehicle with registration number GP 3249 is not serviceable. “There is always pressure on the MTTD, unlike the Pay Unit and the Court Unit of the Ghana Police Service. The MTTD Unit runs 24 hours,” he pointed out.
According to him, the districts have patrol vehicles, but the MTTD regional command which supervises the district has no vehicle. “We cover Atronie, Nsoatre and sometimes Berekum in terms of accidents occurrence,” he added.
He revealed that the regional command of the MTTD is overwhelmed as there are only 34 officers to manage road traffic and other duties. “Our strength has gone down, we used to be seventy but now we are only 34,” he disclosed.
ASP Twum maintained that the MTTD in the region is doing its best with what is available. He says efforts are being made to inform authorities about their plight, stressing that the lack of service vehicle is making work difficult.
FROM Daniel Y. Dayee, Sunyani