‘Transfer road safety back to traffic’

A SENIOR road safety officer within the police traffic division from Wabag, Enga, has called on the responsible authorities to transfer road safety function back to the police traffic division.
Harry Ken, calling from Wabag, was reacting to recent accidents, the latest being the Sogeri road accident in which two Engans were killed.
He claimed there had been less road accident when the police traffic were in control.
Since the function was transferred to respective provincial governments, for revenue reasons, the number road accident had exceeded existing records.
When asked if he had any statistics, Ken said he did not have any at hand.
But he said it was obvious that there were a number accidents along the national highways in the country that warranted a revisit of road safety policy.
Ken said he believed that a high percentage of  road accidents was the result of incompetent drivers who go through the back to door to obtain driving licences.
“Before, when the road safety function was under police traffic, drivers had to go through vigorous process before they were given driving licence.
“But now I am questioning the process that takes to obtain or issue driving licencses.
“Though surveys have attributed causes of road accident to drink driving and other factors, the licensing aspect of road safety must have reviewed and stringent measures must be in place to control consistent road safety,” he said.
Ken reiterated that it would be better if the function was transferred back to police traffic from the provincial government.