The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) says its Traffictech digital enforcement system will initially be deployed only on roads where speed limits are clearly displayed, to prevent motorists from being penalised for inadequate road infrastructure.
NRSA Director-General Abraham Amaliba said the decision was intended to ensure fairness in enforcing traffic regulations, particularly in areas where road signs and other essential safety infrastructure were lacking.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, November 4, during a discussion on Ghana’s road safety blueprint, Mr Amaliba argued that authorities should not use modern technology to enforce regulations on roads without the necessary infrastructure.
“So we cannot use 21st-century digital policing to apply to 19th-century broken-down infrastructure. You know what that means. Our infrastructure is broken,” he said.
He explained that although Ghana needed to embrace digital traffic enforcement, the cameras would initially operate only on routes with clearly displayed speed limits.
“But we need to implement the digital Traffictech. So what we have agreed is that we’ll deploy the cameras to only the routes or streets that have the road signs and speed limits because it’s unfair to, as it were, punish a driver when you have not provided infrastructure,” he stated.
According to Mr Amaliba, the system would be activated only in areas where motorists had been adequately informed of the applicable speed limits through road signs.
He cited Boundary Road towards Mahama Road in Accra as an example of a route where the cameras would be deployed because speed limit signs are already in place.
“So, for instance, if you’re on the Boundary Road, going up to the Mahama Road, you will see that there are traffic indicators, that there are speed limits there, 50 kilometres per hour. There, the cameras will catch you,” he said.
He added that roads without the required signs would be excluded from the initial enforcement exercise until the necessary infrastructure was provided.
“But where we don’t have the road infrastructure, I mean the signs, the cameras will not be used in those places,” he explained.
“Our cameras are only on streets that have the speed limits,” he added.
The NRSA Director-General stressed that motorists should not be held responsible for the authorities’ failure to provide adequate road infrastructure.
“So it is only fair that we do not punish people for our own inadequacies,” he said.
Mr Amaliba also disclosed that the decision to restrict camera deployment to roads with visible speed limit signs was reached at a meeting involving key government officials, the police and transport operators.
The meeting, held on Tuesday, November 3, brought together the Ministers for the Interior, Local Government and Transport, the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), the NRSA and representatives of the transport sector.
Explaining the purpose of the meeting, Mr Amaliba said it was intended to establish a common understanding of how the Traffictech system would be deployed.
“So there was a meeting yesterday [Tuesday]. That meeting brought together the Interior Minister, the Local Government Minister, the Transport Minister, the Police MTTD, myself and operators of our transport system,” he said.
He maintained that restricting camera operations to roads with clearly displayed speed limits was not a new arrangement, explaining that the cameras had already been deployed according to that principle.
However, he acknowledged that the arrangement had not been adequately communicated to the public, contributing to questions about the system’s implementation.
“At that meeting, it was made clear, and if you ask ACP Obeng, that has been the modus operandi. It was not explained for people to know that the cameras are only deployed in areas where the speed limits exist,” he said.
On preparations for the rollout, Mr Amaliba said a dedicated Traffictech committee had been meeting regularly to oversee the work ahead of implementation.
He explained that the committee had been responsible for the preparatory processes leading to the deployment of the digital enforcement system.
“There’s a Traffictech committee that meets, and before the rollout, this committee met regularly. And that committee is what did its work till this day, so we have the rollout,” he said.
