Collaborate with NRSA/DVLA to ensure school buses meet standards - MP tells GES

Dr. Freda Prempeh, the Member of Parliament for the Tano North constituency in the Ahafo Region, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to collaborate with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) and the. Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) to conduct routine inspections on school buses in the country. 

This would go a long way toward ensuring that school buses, particularly those used by private basic schools, meet the required road safety standards.

She emphasised the use of ‘over-aged’ buses for conveying and risking the precious lives of ‘innocent’ schoolchildren in the country remained unacceptable and breached road safety regulations.

"The uncontrolled use of over-aged buses to convey school children do not only risk the lives of the children, but also remains a serious road safety offense as well,"  Dr. Prempeh told reporters at Duayaw-Nkwanta when she reacted to a crash which happened on the Techire-Adrobaa stretch in her constituency.

Police have since put the death toll at six, in a gory crash that happened on the Techire-Adrobaa stretch in the early hours of Friday, November 11, 2022.

The accident happened when the driver, also deceased, of the DS Elites Academy school bus with registration number AW 6315-11 had gone to pick and transport the school children from Adrobaa to Techire.

On their way back, the ‘old’ Benz bus was said to have developed a mechanical fault, and in the process, the driver lost control.

Describing the crash as unfortunate, Dr. Prempeh, also a Minister of State at the Office of the President, asked the GES to intensify its monitoring and supervisory roles in all basic schools in the country.

She said with support from the GES, the NRSA, and the DVLA, they would be able to identify and stop schools that used over-aged buses to convey children.

The MP, however, expressed her deepest condolences to the bereaved families and their relatives and entreated them to take comfort in God.

As of the filing of this report, journalists had gathered the mortal remains of the deceased children, which were to be laid in state at the Adrobaa town square on Thursday, November 17.