WR Courts Impose Gh¢135,974 Fine On Drivers for Traffic Offences

The courts in the Western Region last year imposed fines totalling GHc135, 974 on drivers convicted for various traffic offences.

This was as a result of 311 cases out of a total of 363 cases sent to courts.

The 2018 annual Western Regional motor traffic offences reports released to the Ghanaian Times showed that, expired documents topped the statistics with 64 reported cases while drunk driving and worn out tyres followed with 45 cases each.

Excessive speeding cases were 43, followed by overloading, 31, driving without licenses, 25, failure to wear crash helmet, four and seat belts, two.

Commenting on the region's statistics, the Acting Western Regional Head of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mrs Akua Ansaah Cobbinah, said the convictions by the courts were reasonable and believed together with the judiciary, safety managers would stem the spate of indiscipline on the roads.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and so, our drivers would have no excuse if they flout traffic regulations. You can't drive any vehicle without a road worthy certificate. Ghana and the Western Region, in particular, can't afford to have these crashes on our roads," she said.

"Indeed, we are going to step up our enforcement strategies, this year. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that by 2020 road crashes would be the third leading cause of death in the world, we can't afford for this to occur," Mrs Cobbinah added.

She advised drivers to inspect the external and internal environment before they used vehicles on the road, adding that "drivers shoud be responsible."

The Western Regional NRSC head indicated to the Ghanaian Times that the statistics showed that traffic offences including drunk driving, worn out tyres, excessive speeding and expired documents were major concerns for traffic managers, as they contributed to some of the road crashes.

"Enforcement on the road would be vigorously pursued on our roads. Drivers have no excuse not carrying insurance and road worthy documents. Again, drivers are over speeding beyond the speed limits of 90 kilometres per hour," Mrs Cobbinah stated.

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