Drinking bars situated near or inside lorry stations in the Eastern Region will soon be closed down to deny drivers access to alcohol before they embark on their trips.

The exercise according to the Eastern Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr Abdulai Bawa Ghamsah will seek to prevent drink-driving among drivers with the aim of reducing road carnage to its barest minimum.

Mr Ghamsah disclosed this to Class News in Koforidua on the sidelines of a workshop for some youth groups in the region.

The workshop was part of a special partnership programme between the Commission and the National Youth Authority (NYA) to educate the youth and community members on road safety.

Expressing worry that the Eastern region was leading in road accident statistics in the country, Mr Ghamsah indicated that his office together with stakeholders would be intensifying inspections at the lorry stations to ensure that drivers abide by basic traffic regulations.

“The commission is embarking on a journey to enforce pre-departure checks in most of the lorry terminals to ensure that basic things like the wiper, tyres and driver behaviour and dress codes are checked before they set off on their journeys.

“If you don’t qualify or if you don’t pass through the process, we will advise you to offload the passengers into another vehicle so that you’ll go and do the right thing before you can be allowed to reload,” he stated.

Mr Ghamsah said: “One of the major things we’ll do is to check on those drinking bars that are so close to the lorry terminals where some of these hard liquors are sold and drivers sometimes run there before they come and start their vehicles. We want to help to relocate them so that they can be a distance away from the lorry terminals.”