The Driver and Vehicles Licensing Authority (DVLA) has extended to the first week of December the enforcement of the law to make seatbelts for each and every passenger mandatory for all vehicles in Ghana.

The Authority had originally scheduled March 2015 as deadline for full implementation of the legislation passed in Parliament in 2012.

Section 119 of the Road Traffic Regulation Legislative Instrument 2180 makes it mandatory for seatbelts to be fitted in every vehicle for each passenger.

Speaking on TV3 on Monday, April 13, Chief Executive Officer of the Authority Rudolph Perfect Berkley said by the middle of the year fitting of seatbelts in vehicles will begin “all the way to October/November”.

Already, new vehicles are licensed after meeting the requirement of having seatbelts for each passenger.

“While fitting is going on there is a committee that will embark on in-depth public sensitization,” Mr Berkley said.

Drivers of vehicles without seatbelt face a fine of between GH¢60 and GH¢300 after the new deadline.

But some drivers – most of whom operate short distance commercial vehicles popularly called trotro – have protested the legislation, intensifying their protest at the announcement of the new deadline.

They claim the directive does not suit their business.

“All we are saying is the seatbelt is good for our job but [not for] the intra-city services or trotro,” a trotro driver remonstrated.

The drivers were later calmed down by the General Secretary of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU), Stephen Okudzeto, who promised that a solution will be worked out.

“We must sit down and find a way to resolve those technical issues,” Mr Okudzeto said.

But Minister of Transport Dzifa Ativor expressed wonder at the reaction of the drivers.

“I have always wondered why vehicle owners, drivers and passengers will ignore their own safety until they are made mandatory,” she said at a workshop to train selected artisans to fit seatbelts.

She said vehicles without seatbelts after December, 2015 will not be allowed to operate.