Founder and Leader of Liberal Party Ghana, (LPG) Kofi Akpaloo has asked the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) to make a pass in Mathematics at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level one of the requirements for acquisition of driver’s license for commercial vehicle drivers.
Mr. Akpaloo argued driving involves mathematics and failure in calculations on the road is responsible for the rising number of accidents on our roads.
He then called on DVLA that to ensure that the necessary policy initiatives were rolled out for Trotro drivers going for their document to provide proofs that they have sat for BECE and successfully pass their mathematics
“Driving is mathematics, you should be able to know that, if I driver at 50km per hour, I will be at this place, if you don’t have that knowledge how will you be able to calculate the distance between the vehicle in front of you, anticipate the breaking”.
Mr. Akpaloo was speaking at the Ghana News Agency Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) Road Safety Campaign platform which seeks to use prominent persons to provide continuous education on the need to be safe on the roads and reduce road carnage.
The Project seeks to also create consistent and systematic weekly awareness advocacy on the need to be cautious on the road as a user, educate all road users of their respective responsibilities, and sensitize drivers especially of the tenets of road safety regulations, rules, and laws.
Mr. Akpaloo said it was worrying to see how some drivers illegally overtake in curves and other unauthorized places, putting other road users and passengers in danger.
He called on road safety regulators to icrease sensitization programmes for commercial drivers to be abreast with road safety regulations as it was key in curtailing the carnage on the roads.
Mr. Akpaloo said illegal acquisition of driver’s license was one of the major problems which contributed to the increase in road crashes in the country.
He said a driver who was required to have gone through a period of training from a certified driving school rather preferred the short-cut learning from others.
He said “if drivers were trained properly, they could contribute more positively to the reduction of road traffic accidents and their related consequences on the country”.
Mr Akpaloo urged the DVLA to redirect drivers who seek to acquire licenses to registered driving schools for training to acquire the requisite training to reduce accidents in the country.
