PRE-DEPARTURE INSPECTIONS AT VIP BUS TERMINAL

published: Dec. 8, 2022, 12:56 p.m.

date: Sept. 29, 2022

The Regulatory, Inspectorate and Compliance (RIC) Directorate team of the National Road Safety Authority has conducted coordinated pre-departure inspections at the VIP Terminal at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in collaboration with the Greater Accra Regional Team, the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

Commercial Passenger Vehicles preparing for travel were inspected by Road Safety Inspectors of the Authority using checklists developed by the Directorate. Officers of the MTTD were at hand to educate passengers and drivers. The DVLA officials present, took the opportunity to verify and inspect driver licenses, documents and road worthiness of the vehicles, as they educated drivers and passengers, as well as maintain calm at the terminals.

Prior to the pre-trip inspections, the Road Safety Officers engaged passengers and drivers on the purpose of the checks. They were educated on the importance of seatbelt wearing, consequences of wrongful overtaking, over speeding, inattentive driving, drunk/drugged driving and educated on vehicle safety, especially during the festive period where vehicle crashes tend to be highest.

The Inspectors then carried out pre-departure inspections and informed drivers on the importance of rest periods during journeys of over eight (8) hours or five hundred kilometers (500km), and the use of vehicle log books as mandated by the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2180, Reg. 135).

The Road Safety Inspectors demonstrated the use of log books to drivers and presented promotional copies of the log books to the various transport operators to be distributed to their drivers. Upon completion of the pre-departure checks, the Inspectors informed some of the drivers about some key shortfalls with their vehicles, and directed they were repaired or face the consequences at the next inspection.

Drivers in turn complained about the state of the roads in the country as well as passengers who provoked them to speed on their trips.

Altogether about thirty (30) buses were inspected at the VIP terminal.