The 1st Trustee for the Neoplan Drivers Union, John Tetteh has indicated that the union has put in place measures to ensure their drivers always arrive safely with passengers at their destinations.
According to him, no driver of the Union has been involved in an accident in the last quarter of the year, which is one of the busiest and dangerous parts of every year
“I can say for a fact that from the last quarter, we have not recorded any accident. The only accident we recorded was a minor one which was not caused by our driver. Our driver was on his way from Kintampo and was dropping passengers at Suhum when someone hit the side of the bus”.
John added that the public transport business has become so competitive and has led every union, especially the Neoplan Drivers Union to put in place the right measures and protocols to prevent road carnages. “The work has become competitive for you to give room for road accidents. If your drivers are frequently involved in road accidents, then, you are going to lose customers so we tell and train our drivers to be careful”.
John Tetteh told Samuel Eshun in an interview on the Happy Morning show aired on Happy 98.9 FM and e.TV Ghana on the topic; ‘Motor Insurance and Road Safety’
The 1st Trustee for the Neoplan Drivers Union praised the Regional Chairman of the Union for instituting the tri-weekly devotion that equips drivers spiritually.
He furthered, the Greater Accra Regional Chair also makes sure all cars are inspected thoroughly by the station master before they are allowed to load passengers.
With fake car parts being a major cause of road accidents, the Union has put in place a solid system to mitigate this. “Because most drivers are sold fake parts, we have taken our drivers through training on how to identify which parts are genuine in our bid to reduce road accidents and we always tell them to drive safely”.
On his authority, the rapport and interpersonal communication between the drivers also make it easier for them to pass information to one another reducing their records of road accidents.
Reports from the National Road Safety Authority indicate that road traffic crashes and its resultant fatalities and injuries declined by 14 percent in the first five months of the year 2020 compared to 2019 figures.
Provisional statistics on road traffic crashes from January to May 2020 indicated that a total of 5,465 crashes were reported, involving 9,163 vehicles, with 958 incidents of pedestrian knockdowns, 909 deaths, and 5,703 injuries.
By: Joel Sanco