Mr Joseph Badu Antwi, Chairman of the Techiman Taxi Branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) on Wednesday appealed to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) to extend the deadline on the enforcement of the wearing of seat belts by commercial drivers.

He noted that almost all the commercial buses operating in the municipality had no seat belts and that the drivers and their vehicle owners needed some grace period to buy and fix the belts in their vehicles.

The NRSC has announced that the commission, in collaboration with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Police (MTTD), will from September 1, 2014 begin an operation to ensure that passengers wear their seat belts whenever they board vehicles.

But in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Techiman, Mr Antwi admitted that though the enforcement was a good idea, the set date cannot be met. He explained that seat belts for commercial buses such as the 207, Urvan and Splinters were not readily available on the market and also the fixing of the belts requires the services of experts.

Mr Antwi, who is the Chairman of the Techiman Municipal Committee of the NRSC lamented that road safety education was always carried out during specific periods such as Easter and Christmas festivities.

He emphasized that considering the high rate of road crashes in the country; road safety education ought to be undertaken all year round so that the message would go down well with drivers and passengers.

Mr Antwi appealed to the government to adequately resource the NRSC with vehicles to enable it to be on the road at all times. He noted that the Techiman-Kintampo, as well as Techiman-Nkoranza and Techiman-Kumasi highways are accident prone areas and something urgently needed to be done on these roads.

Mr Yaw Asante Yeboah, Assistant Planning officer at the Brong-Ahafo Regional Office of the NRSC said the commission was bent on helping to reduce road accidents in the region and the nation as a whole.

He said it was because of this and a number of reasons that the commission introduced and launched the Passenger Empowerment Campaign some months ago. Mr Yeboah explained that the campaign was aimed at sensitizing and empowering passengers to demand safety from drivers whenever they board vehicles.

He said the enforcement of road safety regulations in the country was not the best, and that more needs to be done to compel motorists to be extra careful when they set off on their journeys.