Top police officers conduct road safety checks on Accra-Kumasi highway
The Director of Police Operations Commissioner of Police (COP) John Kudalor, on Thursday led a high powered police team to conduct road safety checks on the Accra-Kumasi highway as part of a programme to ensure an accident free Easter.
Joined by the Commanding Officer of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Angwubutoge Awuni, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, ACP Abass Abaa, and members of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), the checks were conducted on every vehicle that plied the Bunso-Kumasi highway for the safety of the travelling public and other road users.
In the process, a Bawku bound Metro Mass transport with registration number AS 5407Z was impounded at Bunso for using worn out tyres that were found to be dangerous to the safety of the passengers on board.
The driver of the vehicle, which had over 60 passengers and luggage, was ordered to change all four tyres before it would be allowed to embark on the journey.
The operation led by the three senior police officers uncovered many road traffic offences such as drivers without licenses, unregistered vehicles and over speeding.
As usual, passengers on board the Metro bus were urging the Police to allow them to go but ACP Awuni insisted that the condition of the vehicle tyres were so bad that, allowing the driver to continue the journey would be a dent on the image of the officers on the road and the Police Service in general.
Mr Kudalor, in press briefing later, said the exercise was a nationwide programme designed by the police administration to ensure that the roads were safe for passengers, especially as Easter approaches.
He said the Police had intensified road safety operations on accident prone areas like the Koforidua-Kumasi and the Winneba-Cape-Coast stretch to reduce avoidable accidents to the barest minimum in view of the fact that deaths recorded from road accidents were alarming in the past three months.
Mr Kudalor urged passengers to take charge of their lives by reporting drivers, who indulge in dangerous and reckless driving, adding that once one had paid for the fare, the driver must also fulfill his side of the contract by taking the passengers safely to their destinations.
Mr Abass Abaa on his part said the Police would not countenance any wrong doing of its officers and cautioned personnel enforcing the law to be disciplined themselves to enable them discharge their duties without fear or favour.
He cautioned Police officers, who aid drivers to do the wrong things, to desist from that and all acts that contradict the law to ensure that they were always firm and professional in their dealings.
The Director of Police Operations and the Eastern Regional Commander later inaugurated a shooting range for the Police training School in Koforidua located at Huhunya in the Yilo Krobo District.
Source: GNA