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Acting Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), David Osafo Adonteng, has disclosed that Commercial Transport Operators in the country will not be allowed to operate if they do not belong to a union.

He explained this directive will be a key breakthrough in ensuring safety and sanity on our roads.

“There is a lot of responsibility in the unions and every commercial transport operator must join one union whether they like it or not. Drivers belonging to unions are always careful and respect all road and traffic regulations,” he stated.

With all drivers being a part of transport unions, he believes all vehicles on the road will be roadworthy and only licensed drivers will hit the road. “These unions will also make sure drivers get the needed rest, reduce incidence of fatigue and drastically reduce road accidents. These are standards drivers will have to regard and any driver acting irresponsibly on the road will be dealt with mercilessly.”

He raised issues over the reckless speeding and overtaking on the predominant Ghanaian single carriage roads, describing it as “bad behavior from drivers and I hope the unionization of all drivers will change that.”

Over the years, road traffic accidents have been identified as one of the major causes of premature deaths in the country, and the Police MTTU, in collaboration with officials from the National Road Safety Authority, has been organizing educational programs to sensitize private and commercial drivers to the need to abide by road traffic regulations.

The MTTU and their collaborators also flood the media annually with statistics of road traffic accidents, not only to paint a gloomy picture of innocent blood shed on the highways but also to create the requisite attention for the major players to initiate policies and programs that would reverse the trend.

However, instead of providing the requisite logistics and tools to the MTTU to enhance the enforcement of road safety regulations on the major highways and other links roads, this had not been so, giving motorists a field day on the road.