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The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has indicated that it will soon prosecute vehicle drivers who use mercury lamps.

The NRSA has currently begun an exercise to keep the roads safe for road users.

The exercise is to remove all mercury lamps from vehicles using them as these lamps are a contributory factor to the road carnages in the country.

This was disclosed by the NRSA Senior Planning and Programmes Manager, Henry Asomani while speaking on Peace FM's flagship programme ''Kokrokoo''.

Giving statistics of the exercise, Mr. Asomani noted that, "as at now, we have removed the lamps from 1,418 cars".

He gave a breakdown stating the Authority has removed the mercury lamps from 904 commercial, 393 private and 99 institution vehicles together with 22 cars that don't have ownership.

Regionally, the Greater Accra is leading on the list with 223 vehicles being affected by the exercise.

The Bono, Volta and Northern Regions recorded 182, 32 and 10 vehicles respectively; the Authority is also extending the exercise to cover all Regions in the nation.

Henry Asomani further revealed that the Authority shockingly realized some motorcycle riders have also fixed such lamps, so removed a number of 179 lamps.

The exercise, he stressed, is ongoing stressing ''for now it's sensitization but as time goes on, we will not only remove the lamps but also prosecute'' the offenders.

NRSA Statistics

''Out of a total of the 1418 vehicles accosted during the exercise, 900 vehicles were registered as commercial vehicles, 99 as institutional vehicles and 393 as private vehicles. Trucks and trailers led the pack of offending vehicles with 602 representing, 42.4%  followed by 263 mini-buses, 179 motorcycles/tricycles, 164 saloon cars and and 106 pick-ups representing 18.5%, 12.6% and 11.5% and 7.4% respectively.

''The top six regions for the abuse of Regulation 65 were Greater Accra (223), Bono (182), Bono East (121) Upper East(146), Oti(112) and Western(107) regions. These Regions account for 63.3% of all offending vehicles impounded during the first week of the exercise.''