It has emerged that drivers who crash their vehicles into traffic lights and guardrails are rather required by law to replace them and not the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA).
According to a former Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) retired Victor Tandoh, it is mandatory by law for drivers to fix any traffic light(s) that they may mistakenly damage.
However, he explained that “because most vehicles are covered by insurance it was the responsibility of the insurance company to pay for the cost of the damage.”
“Unfortunately when a vehicle runs into a traffic light or a guardrail he or she escapes leaving behind his or her vehicle or when he or she realises that the vehicle is not so damaged the driver moves away with the vehicle without reporting to the police,” he expressed.
The former commander of MTTD told Weekend Today in an interview yesterday that “when it happens this way the burden shifts to the state to repair or replace the damages.”
He explained further that the best thing for any driver to do after a crash is to report to the police to conduct investigations into the cause of the accident and forward the report to the GHA who will also take it to the insurance company concerned for the claims to be made to replace the damages.
ACP (retired) Tandoh noted that the fixing of any damaged traffic light was under the auspices of the Department of Urban Roads which in turn sublet it to other companies.
He was however, not happy that major roads such as Awoshie-Pokuase, Achimota-Pokuase, Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam and Achimota Ofankor have been the most affected by what he described as “careless driving.”
Meanwhile, investigations by Weekend Today have revealed that some police officers allegedly collect monies meant for replacement of damaged traffic lights.
A source at one of the companies in charge of the maintenance of traffic lights told Weekend Today that because most of the insurance policies that some drivers take are third-parties, they (the insurance companies) refuse to pay.
But the source added that for those which are covered by comprehensive policies the insurance companies do pay.
Our checks further revealed that some drivers and vehicle owners pay the police Gh¢1,500 for a damaged traffic light while, they take Gh¢1,000 for a guardrail.
The drivers claimed that they pay the said monies because of the fear of being taken to court.
“Since we don’t want litigation we always pay to the police,” a commercial driver, Kwame Fosu, who plies the Awoshie-Pokuase road, said.
As at the end of November 2016, Ghana had recorded a total of 11,378 road crashes countrywide involving 17,746 vehicles of which the total number of casualties stood at 12,154 comprising 1,990 deaths and 10,154 injuries
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