Transport owners and drivers operating long journey buses in the Upper East Region have welcomed a decision for them to provide extra exit doors on their buses.
Legislative Instrument (2180) of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 provides for all long journey buses to have double doors for the safety of passengers in an event of accident.
Unfortunately, some buses in the country are operating contrary to this regulation.
But in line with measures to enforce the regulation, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), in the Upper East Region and its stakeholders have given a one-month ultimatum to owners of long journey buses with single doors to provide extra doors or be banned from operating in the region.
Upper East Regional Manager of DVLA, Mutawakil Abdulai during a stakeholders meeting between drivers and transport owners in Bolgatanga lamented that many lives have been lost due to the activities of the long hall buses which ply on the roads.
“MTTD, any bus which is loaded and gets your checkpoint and it has only one door, please drop all the passengers and go ahead and prosecute the driver and the owner. So what we are saying is that, by the end of May 2019, if you want to operate a bus in the Upper East Region, the safety committee is saying that by the given period if you don’t have 2 doors you cannot do business in this region”, he cautioned.
Some drivers and managers of these buses in an interview with A1 News welcomed the directive saying the move will go a long way to reduce road accidents in the country.
“The government should make it a national issue that all importers of buses should make sure that buses imported into the country have double doors”, Patrick Kwame indicated.
A driver Emmanuel Apaam said “the double door bus policy is very good for the safety of drivers and the passengers. It will minimize road accidents”
Transport owners and drivers of these buses in the region have also been directed to have in their buses a 6-kilogram fire extinguishers with an extra driver by the stipulated period or be banned from operating in the region.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah
