FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
AUTHORITIES AT the Motor Traffic and Transport Department ( MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service in the Bono Region are finding it difficult to manage road traffic and safety across the .region due to lack of service vehicle.
The only service vehicle provided to the unit since 2012 has broken down beyond repairs and this is affecting operational duties. The unit according to the acting commander does not even have patrol motorcycles to aid their movement
The Regional MTTD office which supervises all motor traffic offences and takes care of accidents during day and night has to dwell on benevolence of the driving public to carry out all these important duties.
ASP Joseph Twum, the 2IC of the regional MTTD revealed this in a conversation during a fact finding effort into an accident that occured at Nsoatre during the previous night thst killed a pedestrian in the Sunyani West District of the region.
He explained that police investigators find it difficult to travel to accident scenes to carry out investigations especially in the night saying accidents are daily occurrence
‘When we visit accident scene most times it is difficult to convey the death to hospitals because the district ambulances don’t carry dead bodies. At best they may carry the injured but not the dead’.
He emphasised the broken down Navara vehicle with registration number GP 3249 is not serviceable. ‘There is always pressure on the MTTD, unlike the pay unit and the court unit of the Ghana Police Service. The MTTD unit runs 24 hours’ he mentioned.
According to him, the districts have patrol vehicles but the MTTD regional command supervises the district has no vehicle. ‘We cover Atronie, Nsoatre and sometimes Berekum in term of accidents occurance.
He revealed the regional command of the MTTD is overwhelmed as there are only 34 men to manage road traffic and other duties. Our strength has gone down, we used to be seventy but now we are only 34.
Speaking on traffic light situation in the Sunyani Municipality especially at the Business District of Sunyani broke down for more than five years always causing traffic jam.
The new traffic light which was fixed a year ago never works. The irony of it is that the MTTD which manages road traffic and regulation is not in charge of traffic light maintanance emphasing almost all traffic lights within the municipality don’t work.
The proble is that traffic light maintenance is in the hands of a private man so when he is owed he fails to come and fix broken down traffic lights.
ASP Joseph Twum maintained the MTTD in the region is doing its best with what is available. He says efforts are being made to inform authorities about their plight saying the lack of service vehicle is making work difficult.
He, however, was unable to state the first quarter road traffic statistics saying the accident statistics is better than last year.
He maintained the congestion being experienced in the city centre is also worsen by pragyia riders who don’t often obey road traffic regulations and are causing congestion everywhere.
‘They won’t ply roads designated to them but competing with other vehicles.
He called for quick maintenance of traffic lights in Business District of Sunyani to help in traffic management.