Strictly enforce all traffic regulations – Security Council urges Police

The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has charged the police to enforce strictly all the traffic regulations binding the operations of tricycles and motorbikes.

The police should ensure sanity on the road in order to reduce to the barest minimum the vulnerability of the tricycles and motorbikes to accidents.

“Not only are the activities of the riders on our roads and highways a nuisance to other road users, but also pose several risks.

“They ride recklessly and engage in dangerous and wrongful crossing of other road users with impunity, resulting in deaths and injuries to innocent citizens,” a statement signed by the Regional Minister and Chairman of the Council, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, and copied the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Kumasi, said.

The Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) estimates that of every four cases of accidents reported at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit, three involved either a tricycle or motorbike.

The REGSEC directed that from Wednesday, September 1, this year, the police should ensure that no motorbike or tricycle got onto the road without a license.

According to the statement, it was expected of the police to be vigilant and check offences such as riding without helmets, jumping the red light and overloading of tricycles.

They should not allow passengers to sit on the front seat of tricycles, which was meant only for the rider, as well as stopping minors from riding tricycles.

Additionally, the MTTD had an obligation to prevent tricycles from riding in between lanes and creating additional and illegal lanes.

The statement warned of dire consequences for offenders, stating that: “They will be apprehended, processed and arraigned.”