Winneba (C/R), Sept. 22, GNA - A Senior Lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, Mr Kwabena Ankomah-Appiah, has urged transport unions to form cooperatives to ensure that competent drivers were employed to man vehicles on the roads.

This, he said, was to ensure professionalism and proficiency in the sector and bring road accidents to the barest minimum. Mr Ankomah-Appiah was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Winneba in the wake of the recent spate of road accidents in the country.

He said the cooperative would ensure that individuals did not have the liberty to drive commercial vehicles anyhow and also see to it that drivers used the required vehicles for a particular journey. "It is prudent for the cooperatives to maintain that certain vehicles are not used to cover certain distances taking the age and life span of the vehicle into consideration".

Mr Ankomah-Appiah said cooperatives must "train drivers and set criteria for their recruitment before they can drive any vehicle". He said the cooperatives would regularise the movement of drivers to avoid the tendency where some drivers drove at break-neck speed to double their sales which often lead to accidents.