Kumasi, March 5, GNA - The Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) is to mount special road checks from Thursdays to Sundays in addition to the normal routines road checks to reduce road accidents in the Ashanti Region.

Chief Superintendent Augustine Gyening, Ashanti Regional Commander of the MTTU, who announced this, observed that it was from Thursdays up to the weekends that major road accidents occurred because of the many social activities that went on during those periods.

He was speaking at a press conference organised by the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) on disasters and how to prevent them, as part of the World Disaster Day celebration in Kumasi on Friday.

Chief Supt Gyening urged drivers, pedestrians and other road users to co-operate with the police not only to reduce accidents but also to get recalcitrant drivers out of the roads.

He said the MTTU had started using its four breath analysers to arrest drivers who drank while driving and warned that drivers who would fail the test would not be spared.

Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, speaking on the theme for the celebration, "Civil Defence and Road Safety", said that the theme had a lot to tell people with respect to preventing disaster either in the home or outside.

"In our homes, we open ourselves to a lot of dangers due to our carelessness. Wrong use or application of electrical gadgets, gas cookers, child neglect and others, put us in great danger which we could avoid easily", he said.

The Regional Minister said it was unfortunate that most people who purchased electrical appliances reneged on the reading of the instructional manuals on them and just begin to use them and stressed that this was a bad practice.

On road accidents, Mr Boafo said it was unfortunate that Ghana was ranked among countries that experienced high accident rates and charged the NADMO, the police, Fire Service and all agencies involved in protecting life and property to map out strategies that would help to reduce disasters on our roads.

"As agencies responsible for the management of disasters, you need to harmonise your plans and programmes so that each one will complement the other in achieving one aim which is prevention of disasters", he said.

"We are no longer going to wait for disasters to strike for us to distribute cement, roofing sheets, blankets and other logistics to victims," he added