The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA) has authorized all commercial vehicles to fix seatbelts for passengers from next year, and this is mandatory.
According to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at DVLA, Prince Opoku Adusei, the authority has successfully gone through the approval phase for the implementation of the policy.
Mr. Adusei said DVLA is currently awaiting final clearance from the Ministry of Finance for the policy to be implemented in 2023.
He revealed this at Koforidua on Thursday, November 10, 2022, during the opening ceremony for the training of accident and traffic enforcement officers and DVLA Technician Engineers.
“DVLA has successfully gone through the approval section of implementation of seatbelts in commercial vehicles. [We are] waiting for the final clearance from the Ministry of Finance to continue with the procurement process.”
“Very soon, hopefully, next year, we shall come back to you again to fashion out a way to ensure the smooth implementation of this very important policy. This especially affects vehicles that come as vans, which are converted to passenger vehicles,” he added.
He also indicated that consultation processes are far advanced for the installation of road speed limiters and tachographs in Commercial and goods-carrying vehicles.
In response, the chairman of the Eastern Regional Branch of Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) Johnson Kyereh called on DVLA to hasten slowly the implementation of the compulsory seatbelts to allow for wider consultation and education before it takes off.
He said, fixing seatbelts for passengers in vehicles that were not originally fitted with them is very expensive hence government should subsidize them.
The mandatory seatbelt policy is in conformity with Section 119 of the Road Traffic Regulation Legislative Instrument (LI) 2180 which will help achieve a 50 percent reduction in deaths and serious injuries associated with vehicular accidents.
However, attempts by the DVLA to implement the policy in 2014 were kicked against by many commercial drivers.
DVLA announced that it would not register commercial vehicles that do not have seatbelts for all the passengers they are allowed to carry.
The authority also planned to decline to issue road safety certificates to car dealers and operators who failed to abide by the new directive.
The various transport unions appealed to the authority to allow a period of grace prior to the enforcement of the seatbelt policy on the grounds that more education needed to be carried out for their members.