The Northern Regional Road Safety Management Committee has served notice that it will deal ruthlessly with road users who flout road traffic regulations.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Ken Yeboah, Northern Regional Police Commander, who gave the warning at the Fourth Northern Regional Road Safety Awards held in Tamale on Tuesday, said beginning from Monday, November 11, those who flouted road traffic regulations in the region would be processed for court.

DCOP Yeboah said the public had received enough education in the last seven months and it was about time recalcitrant road users faced the law.

The award ceremony, which was under the theme: “Safe Transport System, The Role of Commercial Drivers and the Media,” was to recognise various transport unions for their contribution towards road safety in the region.

DCOP Yeboah said the police would enforce the law to save lives, adding that people riding without crash helmet, drivers and riders without licenses or those with fake number plates, underage riders and those who engaged in overloading would be prosecuted.

He cautioned drivers not to give money to any police officer, and that both the ‘giver’ and the ‘taker’ were offenders who would not be spared when caught.

Mr Alexander Ayatah, Northern Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission, said death tolls due to road crashes in the region had increased from 54 between January and September 2012, to 119 within the same period in 2013.

Mr Ayatah said the north was gradually becoming one of the regions with high fatalities, and called on all stakeholders, especially opinion leaders, Imams, pastors and politicians, to work hard to reverse the trend.

He suggested to drivers to employ defensive driving as one of the effective measures to reduce fatalities in the region, especially as Christmas festivities approached.

He said about 50 percent of drivers were ignorant about tyre safety information, and that about 30 per cent of sub-standard tyres were responsible for road crashes in the country.

Mr Abdul Rahman Gundadow, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, complained about disregard for road traffic regulations and pledged to collaborate with the Road Safety Management Committee to enforce the law.

Mr Gundadow said road crashes must be considered as a humanitarian crisis, which required genuine commitment from all stakeholders to effectively address the situation.

He said; “It takes strong institutions to get drivers to act professionally for public safety and set the pace towards achieving 50 per cent reduction in road traffic crash fatalities in the country as per the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.”

The Intercity State Transport Corporation was adjudged the best transport company followed by Imperial Transport while the Metro Mass Transit Limited placed third with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union placing fourth.