Private vehicle owners have been urged to park their cars and join public buses and taxis in order to ease the heavy traffic jams in the cities during the Christmas season.

“We advise private car owners to sacrifice and board commercial cars,” said Inspector Simon Tenku, Public Relations Officer of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monday.

He said whilst the slow moving traffic in the capital could not be entirely stopped, especially during the yuletide as most people had come to town to shop, the police had intensified their road safety activities and increased their visibilities to contain the situation.

Inspector Tenku said the main reason for traffic jams in the city was that apart from the city dwellers doing a lot of Christmas shopping, others were coming in from other parts of the country to shop in the capital.

The heavy traffic direction from all corners of the country to the central business district accounted for the concentration of cars in the city of Accra as all cars lead to the same centre, he said.

Touching on road safety measures, Inspector Tenku said the police had embarked upon several safety programmes to prevent accidents during the yuletide.

He said: “Today, we have already randomly tested over 20 drivers for alcohol and we are focusing on both commercial and private vehicles.”

Inspector Tenku said the police had also intensified their checks on irresponsible driving habits such as over-speeding and talking on mobile phone while driving which increased the risk of an accident.

“Passengers should know their civic rights to call drivers to order when their conduct endangers their lives. Passengers should know that they have a contract with drivers to send them to their destination safely,” he said.

He said the police were ever-ready to tackle any driver who misbehaved on the road saying; “all it takes to ensure safety on our roads is discipline.”

“Drivers, passengers, pedestrians and everyone should be disciplined and insist on the right thing to be done,” Mr Tenku said.