A police officer has appealed to drivers plying long distances to make sure their vehicles are road worthy.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Isaac Sokpah, Tarkwa Divisional Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU), said a lot of long distance vehicles are not road worthy.
He appealed to police personnel to check such vehicles and those that are not road worthy should be taken off the road.
Mr Sokpa said most of the long distance vehicles have damaged windscreens, worn-out tyres, defective headlights and broken side mirrors
and most of the drivers do not have valid driving licenses.
He said the MTTU, in collaboration with the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Road Safety Commission had begun a two-week exercise to eliminate from the roads rickety vehicles.
Mr Sokpah said special patrol teams would conduct spot checks for insurance and roadworthy stickers, drunk driving, over speeding, driving
without the approved licenses and the use of fake driving licenses.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Hans Evans Setsor said 540 people have died from road accidents within the first quarter of this year as
compared to 340 within the same period last year.
He said while 3,084 sustained injuries this year, 3,166 sustained various degrees of injuries last year and this was too alarming.
Mr Setsor said road accidents were on the rise and every Ghanaian must make a conscious effort to prevent them.