Pressure Group, OccupyGhana has recommended some twelve measures to reduce fatalities on Ghana’s roads.

The group said in a release that its recommendations were informed by “the four E’s in road safety namely Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergencies.”

Among others, OccupyGhana wants tricycles and mopeds to be restricted from plying High-speed roads like the motorway.

Also, they want the law barring the use of motorbikes and tricycles for commercial purposes to be enforced.

What has prompted the recommendations?

On Friday, March 22, over 70 people perished in two separate accidents, one on the Kintampo road and one on the Cape Coast road.

But it isn’t unprecedented, according to the statistics, almost 2000 people die yearly in road accidents in Ghana.

OccupyGhana wants the report of the inter-ministerial committee which investigated increasing road accidents in Ghana published.

Read OccupyGhana’s full recommendations below:

1.    Enforce all the laws in the Road Traffic Regulation (LI 2180).

2.    Commercial vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles must be fitted with speed limiters and tachygraphy with speed not exceeding 80km per hour.

3.    Audits on privately owned transport businesses must be conducted to regulate their operations.

4.    Commercial drivers must undergo yearly medical examinations before being permitted to drive any passenger bus. Certificates of fitness to drive a commercial vehicle must be issued by certified medical doctors from registered health facilities.

5.    The Law restricting the use of motorbikes and tricycles for commercial purposes must be enforced, and tricycles should be banned from plying motorways and highways.

6.    All trucks, buses and commercial vehicles must physically be tested at DVLA approved test stations.

7.    The MTTD of the Ghana Police Service must arrest law enforcement personnel such us the GAF personnel, Fire, Immigration, Customs as well as other vehicles who flout the regulations by driving in the middle and the shoulders of the road without appropriate, legal sirens.

8.      The revision of the laws on the use of DV and DP plates as most drivers of such unregistered vehicles are very recalcitrant traffic regulation offenders.

9.    Tricycles and mopeds must not be allowed on high-speed arteries like the Accra-Tema Motorway.

10.     The establishment of an emergency response system and trauma centres.

11.     Improvement of our roads, road lights, and signs.

12.     Intensify public awareness campaigns about road safety