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16.10.2008 Social News

Expedite action on draft transport policy – Parliament urged

16.10.2008 LISTEN
By GNA

Mr Emmanuel Mensah, General Secretary of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union (GTPCWU), has appealed to Parliament to expedite action on the draft National Transport Policy.

He said this would enable stakeholders in the road transport sector to have adequate information and a sense of direction to ensure healthy compliance of regulations and sanity on the roads.

Mr Mensah, who is also the Co-ordinator of the Federation of Transport Unions (FTU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Thursday during the International Transport Federation (ITF) Action Week Campaign in Accra.

Mr Mensah noted that problems confronting stakeholders in the industry needed to be seriously looked at through a collective effort by government and employers of transport organisations.

This, he believed, they could do by ensuring that unorganized drivers were mobilised and sensitized continuously in their activities to observe the rules and regulations of the road transport industry.

Mr Mensah stressed the need for drivers to go for further training to be equipped with the needed skills and knowledge that would enable them to relate with authorities they came into contact with.

He said for instance, at countries' borders, professional drivers do not have to be held for several days without access to basic facilities.

Mr Mensah also noted that drivers must be conscious of ill-health factors such as fatigue, anxiety, depression, back pains, digestive disorders and heart diseases which affected their work.

Mr David .O. Adonteng, Director, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) said a significant number of accidents were as a result of fatigue and noted unnecessary overtaking, driving above approved speed limits, overloading of vehicle, abandoning broken-down vehicles on the roads without warning signs, drunk-driving and the use of poorly maintained vehicles, as some of the causes.

He said in order to address the high incidence of road accident, the government through the National Road Safety Commission and other stakeholders have launched the National Roads Safety Strategy, which sought to reduce road accidents.

Mr Adonteng also urged transport unions to devise their own mechanisms to ensure that long journey-drivers have rest periods.

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