'Ghost' drivers back on road

Some 'dead' drivers are back on the roads driving. No, not really, but at least their licences are in use. Yes, some drivers without licences have resorted to using licences of dead relatives to outwit the police.

Another syndicate is into the printing of fake road worthiness stickers for drivers.

The Central Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Mr Oduro Botwe, said the police in the region had noticed that some drivers, particularly young people between the ages of 18 and early 20 were using licences of dead relatives to drive.

He said these drivers in their bid to outwit the police managed to alter the licences in their names and use them. "Sometimes the licences are older than the users," he said.

"We have arrested some drivers recently," he said, adding that it was not surprising that the accident rate kept increasing.

Mr Botwe was speaking at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Central Regional police Command on• the recent increasing spate of road accidents.

The meeting was to help find solutions to the many road accidents recorded in recent times in the region.

He called for a task force to help ensure that road regulations were observed as well as the of snap checks re-introduced on the roads to ensure that drivers abided by the rules of driving.

The Central Regional Licensing Officer of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority, Mr Thomas Nintori, said there was a syndicate printing fake roadworthiness stickers for sale to some of the drivers.

He asked the police to check on the condition of vehicles and apprehend drivers with defective vehicles rather than checking whether a car had a road worthiness sticker or not.

He said it was also known that some drivers were not driving the approved vehicles 'on their licences and urged the police to look out for the categories each driving licence permitted in their routine checks.

According to the Regional Commander of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Akayire Kamparah, 60 persons died in motor accidents in the Central Region between January and March, this year.

This, he noted, was more than 200 per cent increase over the 19 deaths recorded during the same period last year.

Accidents in the region, he said, also increased from 132 to 186 while the number of vehicles involved in these accidents increased from 166 last year to 327 between January and March, this year.

He said 111 persons were injured in the various accidents last year while 166 persons had been injured this year with 27 fatalities compared to 18 fatalities recorded last year.

Representatives of driver unions present at the meeting pledged to help ensure that there was no drink-driving and that unqualified and inexperienced drivers were removed from the roads.