Kumasi, Aug 25, GNA - The Ashanti Regional Police Motor and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service is instituting a number of measures to curb motor accidents that has ranked the region as leading in accidents in the country.

As a first measure, all vehicles running on single rear tyres will no longer be allowed to erect carriers on the roofs of their vehicles because it leads to overloading.

Chief Superintendent Augustine Gyening, the Ashanti Regional Commander of the MTTU, said the police are also clamping down on drivers of mini buses who remove their back seats to load goods at the back. He said it had been found out that after off loading the goods, the seats are not tightly fixed and this also causes accidents. Chief Supt Gyening was speaking at the quarterly meeting of the Ashanti Regional Road Safety Committee in Kumasi on Wednesday to discuss matters concerning road safety.

The Regional MTTU Commander announced the completion of a parking lot for articulated trucks at Akom, about 15 kilometres from Kumasi on the Kumasi-Offinso road. With the completion of the parking lot, a joint venture between Love Enterprise and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), he said no articulated vehicles would be allowed to park along the highways in the metropolis.

Mr Abraham Tetteh, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), appealed to stationmasters to verify documents of drivers before loading their vehicles. This, he said, was necessary because the Authority will soon embark on an exercise to check all these documents and those who would be found not to possess them would be prosecuted.

Mr Michael Appiah, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA), called on drivers and vehicle owners to procure copies of the Road Traffic Act.