TraffiTech-GH: ACP Obeng explains why police are targeting speeding

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alexander Kwaku Obeng has disclosed that speeding accounts for approximately 60 out of every 100 road crash deaths and serious injuries in Ghana.

The Director of Education, Research and Training at the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) said investigations and analysis of road crash data gathered since 1991 had identified excessive and inappropriate speeding as a major contributor to fatalities and serious injuries.

Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues with Keminni Amanor, ACP Obeng explained that the findings influenced the police decision to make speeding the first major offence targeted by the automated TraffiTech-GH enforcement system.

He said the department examined its historical crash data to establish which driving behaviour posed the greatest threat to human life.

“And we realised that if 100 people are dead, where we go and do investigation, we always realise based on the impact. And our investigation realised that almost about 60 out of 100, sometimes 59, but 60 averagely, die or sustain serious injuries as a result of drivers who were engaged in excessive speeding above their limit or inappropriate speeding,” he said.

ACP Obeng explained that the police subsequently decided to concentrate their initial digital enforcement efforts on speeding rather than attempting to automate all traffic offences at once.

He said the department also studied enforcement approaches used by police institutions in other countries before settling on the strategy.

The MTTD director said automated enforcement would reduce direct encounters between police officers and motorists, potentially addressing bribery and corruption.

“And we also saw that, ah, it will help police, because police may not be in person. An issue of bribery, corruption between police and also the motorists may be no more. And again, the issue of behaviour may improve, and then crashes will go down,” he stated.

He explained that the cameras currently deployed under TraffiTech-GH were designed to detect speeding, gather evidence and facilitate the issuance of electronic notices of violation.

According to him, the police can process a notice within three minutes and send it to the registered telephone number of the vehicle owner.

“Within three minutes, we’ll finish our electronic notice of violation, powered by GPS MTTD, our sender ID, to the vehicle owner’s number in accordance with Regulation 242, sub-regulation 18,” he disclosed.

-mynewsgh