The Eastern Regional Police Command has began an operation to ensure that all school vehicles used as a means of transportation for schoolchildren comply with the road traffic regulations.

As part of the operation that began on Wednesday, all school vehicles and their drivers would go through professional testing whiles driving licenses, insurance covers and other requirements of all commercial vehicles would be verified.

The exercise followed a GNA report which showed the plight of schoolchildren who were overloaded in insecure vehicles that had no insurance covers, driving permits nor were the drivers themselves having valid driving licenses.

The Eastern Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Chief Superintendent James Sarfo Peprah, who disclosed this to GNA in an interview in Koforidua, said the move was to ensure the safety of the many schoolchildren who used those vehicles to and from schools each day.

He said already the regional command had written to the Ghana Education Service (GES) requesting for the full list of all private schools in the municipality and would meet them in groups for a number of days for the exercise.

Mr Peprah said a previous operation done by the police following the GNA report confirmed that most of the vehicles had no insurance covers or road worthiness and the children were loaded above the stipulated number required.

Chief Superintendent Sarfo-Peprah recalled that during the exercise some 21 vehicles that were encountered on the road were operating contrary to the law.

He said other schools were also using hiring commercial vehicles in the morning to run as school vehicles and noted that all would be checked during the exercise since the children needed to be protected.