Driver fined 900,000 cedis for overloading

Nsuta (Ash), May 21, GNA - The Nsuta circuit court on Tuesday fined a 22-year-old taxi driver, 900,000 cedis for carrying excess passengers. Kwabena Barnieh pleaded guilty and will go to prison for seven months in default.

Prosecuting, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr Mustapha Donkor told the court presided over by Mr Kofi Akrowiah that at about 6 pm on May 13, the Nsuta police spotted a taxicab carrying excess passengers with two of them in the boot, which was open. He said the police therefore gave the taxi, which was travelling from Kwamang to Kumasi a chase, and caught up with it after Mr Thomas Edward Atakorah, the Sekyere West District Chief Executive stopped it.

Chief Superintendent Donkor said it was discovered on counting the passengers that they were nine in the taxi including the driver, with three of them in the front seat, four at the back seat and two in the boot. He said the driver who could not even produce his driving license on demand was therefore sent to the Nsuta police station accompanied by the DCE where he was charged with the offence.