The Northern Regional Road Safety Management Committee has served notice that it will deal ruthlessly with underage persons who ride motor-king as well as those who refuse to wear crush helmets.
Superintendent Cashman Blewushie, Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service in the Northern Region, who gave the warning during a road safety management meeting in Tamale said underage riders would be processed for court.
The meeting served as a platform for members of the committee to deliberate on their planned safety projects and to see how it could be implemented to address the various challenges in the region.
“This year, one of our main focuses is to deal with these riders because we have observed that they often cause accidents. We arrested one boy and he is being prepared before court, because we are always on the road educating and cautioning them but they have not changed,” he said.
Supt. Blewushie also cautioned motor-king riders to desist from conveying passengers in the bucket of the motor and that the law only permitted them to cart goods.
He advised manufacturers of the machine to enhance it by molding it to be able to carry passengers as it was done in other countries such as Nigeria.
Mr Alexander Ayatah, Northern Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission, said death tolls from road crushes in the region had increased from 105 between January and December 2012 to 166 within the same period in 2013.
He said total injuries rose from 225 in 2012 to 666 in 2013 and called on stakeholders, especially opinion leaders, Imams, pastors and politicians to join the campaign on road safety as a means of helping to reverse the trend.
Mr Ayatah explained that saving the lives of school children was also the priorities of the commission and advised drivers to support the commission’s work by respecting and exercising patience for school children.
He said though there was high level of road safety awareness among road users in the region the public was not committed to adhering to road safety instructions.
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