A road safety examination was conducted for professional drivers within the country as part of this year’s Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards (GDRSA) scheme.

Held in both Accra and Kumasi, the written test formed part of some five processes that have been laid down by the organisers for participants in the driving excellence awards to undergo in order to choose the ultimate winner of the 2019 GDRSA.

The exam was made up of a general paper and a category paper, which was based on the type of car that a driver works with.


Over 200 commercial drivers plying their trade across the 16 regions of the country sat for the exams at two different centres; one in Accra for those in the southern sector, and another in Kumasi for those in the northern sector.

Marks

This number will however be pruned down by 50 percent for the competition’s next stage when the competing drivers will be interviewed by a panel, according to the Director of Partnership for GDRSA, Ms. Freda Frimpong.

“There is a pass mark that we are using to select them for the next round, and it starts from the marks they have accumulated right from the beginning of the competition,” she explained.

The awards, themed ‘Rewarding Driving Excellence, Promoting Road Safety, will be held on November 21st to reward professional drivers, media houses, corporate institutions and individuals who have contributed to saving lives and properties on Ghana’s road. This year, the awards will coincide with the World Road Safety Day celebrations.

Categories

Categories up for grabs are ‘Best Driver-Taxi’, ‘Best Driver-Trotro’, ‘Best Driver-Haulage’, ‘Best Driver-Intercity’, ‘Best Driver Intra-city’ and ‘Best Female Driver’. The overall winner will receive a Suzuki saloon car.

The overall winner, according to Madam Freda, “must exhibit great skills in defensive driving and how to handle passengers and goods”.

The awards scheme is in partnership with the National Road Safety Commission and supported by Ghacem, Goil Ghana, Enterprise Insurance, the Ministry of Transport, Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority and many others.

Optimism

A 52-year-old female driver with the Metro Mass Transit, Madam Margaret Atti who has been driving for over 21 years, expressed hope of winning the Suzuki saloon car at the end of the event.

She also advised young ladies in the country to see driving as a viable career option to consider for the future, saying: “It is better to be a female driver than staying home unemployed”.

A Road Safety Advocate, Osofo Moses, was also there to translate the questions into twi for some of the drivers who could not read English.