The Deputy Executive Director In-charge of Planning at the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr.David Adonteng has revealed to Ahotor News, measures being put in place to reduce road accidents caused by broken down vehicles on our roads.
According to him twenty percent (20%) of road accidents in the country are as a result of these broken down vehicles mostly left unchecked without any appropriate forewarning signs to alert other road users.
Mr.Adonteng made this revelation when Ahotor News called on him to know much about an earlier initiative the Commission announced which sought to place towing machines on specific stretches of road on which this phenomenon was very prevalent.
“Due to the high cost of the heavy towing equipment on the international market, we rather negotiated with some private towing machine operators in the country to be stationed on the various highways to assist in such situations.
The agreement was to have the selected companies get government’s approval through the commission but payment was to be done by owners or operators of the broken down vehicles but these owner refused to either pay or come for their vehicle at all.
In spite of these challenges, the Commission is currently in talks with stakeholders to bring on board new policies to help eradicate the canker and also provide a safety atmosphere for all Ghanaians”. He disclosed.
Mr. Adonten’s revelation comes on the heels of a similar situation which occurred on the Accra-Tema motorway on the morning of the 24th day of March 2017, which caused a massive traffic jam on that stretch.
“Our pending strategy is to propose a bill to parliament to be passed into a law similar to the vehicle insurance regime, which will mandate all vehicle owners in the country to pay an amount which will be the source of funding for the payment of the services of these private towing machine companies.
The proposed bill when passed into law will ensure that broken vehicles must be towed off the road within two (2) hours on our highways but within an hour on the urban roads.
Nana Yaw Addai Mununkum |ahotoronline.com|Ghana
