THE Eastern Regional Police Command on December 1, 2009 started impounding air-conditioned buses with white number plates being operated commercially.
According to the police, the white-plated registered vehicles were for either hiring or domestic use and owners of those vehicles had to register them commercially with the yellow number plate.
The air-conditioned buses, which cost between GH¢33,000 and GH¢36,000 each, were purchased by some financial institutions for some individuals and transport unions on a hire-purchase basis to be paid for within four years but because insuring them for commercial use costs higher than insuring them for private use, most of the owners have decided to register them as private vehicles, although they use them to carry passengers.
The Eastern Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Stephen Andoh-Kwofie, who notified the various transport unions in Koforidua about the exercise during a meeting a month ago, said it was wrong for any vehicle using the white number plate to carry passengers, explaining that in the event of an accident, it would be difficult for the occupants to claim insurance.
To buttress his case, DCOP Andoh-Kwofie said four passengers, who died when one of those air-conditioned buses, a Nissan Urvan was involved in an accident at Akyem Swedru about a month ago, could not be paid any insurance claims because the vehicle had not been registered to carry passengers.
“We will not allow such a thing to continue so we will impound all such vehicles found carrying passengers in any part of the region,” he stated.
DCOP Andoh-Kwofie, who said operators of those vehicles would be prosecuted, asked their owners to register them appropriately to avoid being punished.
At the various loading pads in Koforidua where some of the white number-plated buses load, the executives of the transport unions said it was wrong for the police to impound the vehicles because most of them had been registered to carry passengers.
The Chairman of the Koforidua-Swedru branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) of the TUC, Mr Muniru Alhassan, produced documents from the State Insurance Company and the Ghana Tourist Board in respect of one of those vehicles and said all passengers on board would be covered by insurance in the event of an accident.
He, however, asked the police to deal with owners of vehicles which did not have the relevant documents.
When contacted on the issue, some officials of insurance companies in Koforidua pleaded anonymity but said their outfits were obliged to cater for all those on board those vehicles so far as the vehicles had insurance cover. According to them, the colour of the number plate did not matter.
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