Senior Planning Officer at the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Henry Asomaning, has expressed the need for drivers to adhere to maintenance culture on their vehicles.

According to him, roadworthiness of vehicles is key to road safety and helps reduce accidents on the roads. He indicated that there are a lot of faulty vehicles on the roads that are causing problems.

Nonetheless, he noted that prior to a vehicle becoming operational on the road, it must be inspected by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority. The DVLA, Mr Asomaning stated, ensures any vehicle that plies on roads is fit to run.

“I would put this more on our maintenance culture because even if a vehicle is 20 years old and is maintained rightly, it will still serve its purpose and it will be good for our roads. But it’s more of a maintenance culture we have where even sometimes for you to service your cars, you need to be prompted. We don’t take that responsibility where we ensure that we go by the servicing data that is given us when we go for servicing.”
Henry Asomaning

Mr Asomaning explained that drivers have the tendency to wait for their vehicles to break down before they service them. That notwithstanding, he indicated that so long as the vehicle has been validated by the DVLA with a roadworthy sticker, then it is indeed fit for the road.

The NRSA senior planning officer highlighted that there are however some driver who dubiously pass the “backdoor to get these certificates”. To address the issue, he emphasized that the DVLA has developed a system where the police can electronically check the validity of a roadworthy certificate.

“So, very soon, those who have not been going through the DVLA to get this roadworthiness will be taken off the streets by the police… Research has shown that most vehicles if you buy it new can last up to 15 years with good maintenance… So, let us all come together and change that maintenance culture, let us maintain our vehicles and I know DVLA is doing a lot to digitise its data such that if you’re not in its database the police can actually take you off the streets.”
Henry Asomaning

Addressing the menace of rickety vehicles on the roads

On his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Concerned Drivers Association, David Agboado, expressed the willingness of relevant stakeholders to reduce fatality and road accidents. He indicated that the LI has certified things to do but the problem now has to do with the enforcement of the law.

“It is true we have rickety cars on our roads, but all boils down to enforcement again. Our laws have specified things to do and things not to do. All the transport organisations must come together for us to kick off these rickety cars from our roads by ensuring that the vehicle, if it’s not roadworthy, must not be at our loading point [and] it must not be used on our roads.”
David Agboado

Mr Agboado urged government to implement policies that enables commercial drivers to purchase cars in the country. He emphasized that “rickety cars to me alone is not good for us to be using on our roads”.

“The cars that we use in Ghana and the cars that come from outside and government seized them and gives to scraps and other things, if there will be a way whereby the rickety cars we are using you’ll go and give it out and top it up with some money and they give you the other one that is better off than what we use here in Ghana, it will help. So, for this thing, it will take some time but we need to all work it out.”
David Agboado

Commenting on what the Association is doing to ensure rickety cars do not ply on roads, Mr Agboado emphasized that before a driver brings a vehicle to the station, checks are done to ascertain whether the car is indeed worthy or not. Additionally, he noted that there are timelines of five years given where drivers are obliged to replace cars deemed unworthy for public commute.