Official information given to THE CUSTODIAN indicates that the state has raked in over GH¢1.4 million through the enforcement of road traffic regulations.
Some 11 persons have also been sentenced to various jail terms with the over GH¢1.4million paid as spot fines into the state coffers for this year alone.
Chief Supt Alexander Kwaku Obeng, Director of Education, Research Training and the Project Coordinator for the Traffitech-GH initiative who disclosed these at a stakeholder sensitization forum in Tamale said over 100,000 road traffic offenders have so far been convicted in court.
He announced that the number of road crashes have declined compared to last year due to the rigorous campaign and police visibility on the major highways.
“Now in terms of injuries, it has gone down because of police intervention and all that [about 9,000 Ghanaians are injured], some amputated, and deaths have also gone down compared to the same period from January to July last year.
“However, over 1,200 Ghanaians have been killed on our roads; one death is one too many, and that’s why the Inspector General of Police and the police council will not accept this at all and therefore more interventions are needed,” he stated.
The Director of Education, Research Training at the Police Headquarters made these remarks when he made a presentation at a multi-stakeholder sensitization forum last Wednesday (August 30) on the Traffitech-GH technology introduced nationwide to combat road traffic violations.
Traffitech Technology
The initiative is an automated system adopted by the Ghana Police Service in their quest to enforce the Road Traffic Laws and Regulations, 2012, (LI 2180) as amended to improve road safety in the country.
The system uses cameras and sensors to automatically take a picture and or video of vehicles that flout road traffic laws and regulations such as over speeding and jumping of red-light.
The pictures and or videos recorded of the offence are automatically transmitted to a back office for validation and issuance of a notification by SMS to the vehicle owner for payment.
Chief Supt Alexander Kwaku Obeng said other traffic offences that will be enforced under Traffitech-GH are expired road worthiness certificate, wrongful overtaking, non-use of seatbelts, use of expired licence, driving with an unlicensed vehicle, abuse of siren among others.
He disclosed the SMS notification sent to an offender will indicate the location, date, and time of the traffic offense as well as the vehicle registration number, offense description and payment amount and deadline for payment.
Meanwhile, a person who is adamant to comply with the payment within the stipulated 14-days window will pay an additional 1% penalty on the original fine each day.
