Guinness Ghana Breweries Ltd (GGBL) on Monday December 15, 2014 launched a road safety campaign at the Kejetia Transport terminal in Kumasi.

The exercise is part of GGBL's plan to educate drivers on the dangers of drink driving across 8 major transport terminals across the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central regions of the country.

The campaign dubbed Twa Kwano Mmom is an integrated programme comprising education on the dangers of drunk driving, a voluntary breathalyser testing process for drivers in the participating transport terminal to prevent and discourage drink driving and a scheme to reward drivers who behave responsibly and do not engage in drink driving.

The campaign was officially launched at the Achimota Transport terminal in Accra on December 8 and set to be replicated in Kejetia and Asafo transport terminals in Kumasi, Tantrie and Kotokraba transport terminals in Cape Coast, Tudu, Kaneshie and Ashaiman transport terminals in Accra.

Mr. Richard Ahiagble

Launching the campaign at the Kejetia transport terminal, Mr. Richard Ahiagble, GGBL Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility manager said the ambition of the campaign is to prevent and curb drink driving among commercial drivers across the major transport terminals during the Christmas and New Year period.

"We do acknowledge that there are many causes of road traffic crashes especially around this time of the year, we want to ensure that driving under the influence of alcohol is not one of them", he said.

He continued ‘Commercial drivers play a very important role in the lives of Ghanaians – transporting more than 70% of the entire population every day. If we can empower them, through this programme, with the knowledge of the dangers of behaviours such as driving under the influence of alcohol, driving tired or when stressed, we will be making a profound contribution to ensuring safety on our roads every day.”

He explained further that the Twa Kwano Mmom campaign will be targeting 5,000 drivers who will be required, as part of their participation in the programme, to sign a pledge board, committing not to engage in drink driving.

 Mr. Thomas Bismark Boakye, Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission, who are partnering GGBL on the campaign said ‘the National Road Safety Commission is proud to be associated with this campaign.   We have worked with GGBL on various campaigns in the past and we believe the Twa Kwano Mmom campaign will contribute to the NRSC’s effort to ensure pedestrian and passenger safety on our roads.”

He urged drivers not to drive when stressed, tired or under the influence of drugs as the safety of their passengers and other road users are in their hands.

The campaign will be activated at eight transport terminals – Achimota, Kaneshie, Tudu, Ashaiman all in the Greater Accra Region, Kejetia and Asafo in the Ashanti Region, and Kotokraba and Tantrie in the Central Region.

As part of the programme, GGBL will be collecting 5,000 pledges from participating commercial drivers who will commit not to engage in drink driving.

Explaining to the drivers the mechanics of the campaign, Mr. Anthony Botwe, Divisional Sales manager, GGBL said ‘drivers will first be taken through our alcohol education programme after which they will be required to sign the pledge board committing not to engage in drink driving.

After which, all drivers who sign up for the campaign will be breathalysed when driving out of the transport terminal to determine the level of alcohol in their body; transport union executives will be on hand to ensure that anyone over the legally permissible blood alcohol limit of 0.08 or more will be replaced by a driver below the permissible limit.

Drivers who behave responsibly throughout the duration of the campaign and do not attempt to or engage in drink driving will be rewarded with branded souvenirs and ultimately free fuel coupons’.

Since the launch of the campaign, last week, more than 1,000 drivers have signed up to participate and are currently breathalysed every time the exit their transport terminals.

Twa Kwano Mmom is supported by GIZ and Japan Motors who are also sponsoring free health screening for all drivers at participating terminals.

The campaign is also supported by the National Road Safety Commission.