Assistant Commissioner of Police Angwubutoge Awuni, Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS), has appealed to police officers to enforce road traffic laws without fear or favour since it is that which would ensure safety of citizens on the road.
"We have a task to ensure safety of Ghanaians and the only way we can do that is to strictly enforce the laws; so act without fear or favour and some of us are prepared to defend you when you are rightly enforcing the law," he said.
ACP Awuni was speaking at a capacity building workshop for MTTU personnel on enforcement of road traffic regulations 2012 (LI 2180) in Koforidua on Monday.
He said he was worried that road accidents had increased in five consecutive years on row, adding that the time had come for the MTTU personnel to go all out to curb accidents.
"Lives that are lost on the highways are such that we cannot afford to ignore the road traffic laws; let us see a drastic reduction in road accidents from this year," he said.
ACP Awuni appealed to police personnel to always insist that drivers put up right behaviour on the road, saying, regulation 107 of the LI 2180 emphatically disallows drivers to drive whiles speaking on phone.
He therefore urged the personnel to arrest and to prosecute drivers, irrespective of their status, who drive while on phone or driving without wearing their seatbelts.
ACP Awuni called on all stakeholders to assist the MTTU in ensuring that road traffic regulations are applied and adhered to.
Mr Rudolph Beckley, the Deputy Director, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), said ensuring road safety was a collective responsibility of all stakeholders.
He said the Police, NRSC and the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) were critical in this call and therefore should strengthen ties to help reduce road accidents.