The Chief Executive Officer of the Road Safety and Transportation Consultancies Limited, RSTC, Godfred Akyea-Darkwah, has stated that unless the academics in driving is emphasized and projected, the attainment of absolute minimum figure in road accidents will be a mirage. He made this known at the closing of a ten-day intensive Driving Management Science Course, (DMS) for drivers of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Mr. Akyea-Darkwah emphasized that driving must be seen as a real professional academic pursuit for the attainment of societal ethical standards. He noted that the Driving Management cause is the latest method of training drivers by inculcating the missing academic elements in driving science which RSTC believes is the fundamental course of the high incidence of accidents on our roads.
The Ten-day course was aimed at improving drivers and transport officers’ general knowledge on transportation, vehicle management and human relations in order to empower the transport staff of the University. They were taken through theoretical as well as practical and technical aspects of driving. The courses included Drivers’ habit, ethics and human relations, safeness in driving and security consciousness.
Again they were taught vehicular maintenance practices and practical driving techniques.
Sources from the National Road safety Commission indicate that a total of 2186 deaths were recorded on Ghanaian roads before 2008 and this declined steadily to 1548 in 2009. Again 6 deaths were recorded daily but was reduced to 4 in 2009. This significant reduction is as a result of the active participation of road safety agents, especially driver educators and trainers, notably RSTC, which is a leading campaigner in Ghana.
KNUST is the second University in Ghana to adopt the DMS as a training component for its drivers, the first being the University of Cape Coast. In all 120 drivers from KNUST undertook the DMS. Certificates of participation were presented to the participants.
The drivers were full of appreciation for the knowledge they had acquired and promised to change their conduct towards their profession. They also pleaded with the University authorities to help maintain their waiting room to help improve their performance.
