The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has started vehicle pre-departure checks at lorry stations in the Upper East Region, in a bid to control road accidents.

The checks are to ensure that commercial vehicles are road-worthy and drivers meet all the road safety requirements before embarking on a journey.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency during the exercise at the Bolgatanga lorry station, Mr Sherrif Appiah, the Upper East Regional Planning Manager of the NRSA, said the exercise formed part of their commitment to reducing the increasing trend of road crashes in the region.

He said among other things, they were checking the fitness of the drivers, the driver's license, the windscreen of the vehicles, tyres, seatbelts, signals, traffic indicators and first-aids.

"We also seize the opportunity to empower passengers to speak up and keep drivers in check in the instances of over-speeding, sleep-driving or reckless driving, because we believe that road safety is a collective responsibility", he said.

Mr Appiah lamented over the poor condition of some commercial vehicles and the lack of cooperation from the drivers saying, "until drivers and transport operators begin to understand that, what we are doing is targeted at saving lives and team up with us, we would not stop the checks."

The Planning Manager explained that the exercise would cut across all major bus terminals and lorry stations in the region, adding that, the Authority would not hesitate to crack the whip on vehicles that were not road-worthy.