Vehicle Inspection Centers: A Double Necessity

Vehicle Inspection Centers: A Double Necessity

The vehicle is the main machine in the road safety system. It is that component/machine which can take you safely to your destination of become the cause of an accident resulting in the loss of lives and property.

It is therefore imperative at every point that the vehicle is in good condition. The liability/ legal responsibility on any vehicle owner, is summarized by the words of a former Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Justice Amegashie; “(as a vehicle owner) the law imposes two primary duties on you.

One, your vehicles must be fit and safe. Two; that the person who drives the vehicle must be competent, knowledgeable and skillful and use the skill with diligence.

Then when you look at the law, common law, it says that the carrier, whether private or common is answerable for the soundness and sufficiency of the vehicle.

And is answerable and liable for any defect which reasonable inspection will reveal. So through vehicle testing, your liability may not affect you because through vehicle testing, you see the soundness.”

From the above, vehicle checks go far beyond what the eye can see, the nose can smell, even what the wayside mechanic can detect. So in the interest of public safety, that responsibility must be policed.

Hence, the DVLA’s legal mandate to ensure the safety of vehicles plying our roads. This they have to do by checking vehicle road worthiness before granting certificates to drivers.

And then by law as contained in the Road Traffic Regulations (LI 2180) of 2012, the DVLA has the additional mandate to licenses private vehicle test stations or Vehicle Inspection Centers (VICs)

The importance of VICs according to a presentation by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) is as follows:
1. To ensure that condition of vehicles comply with required standards to mitigate vehicle related road crashes
2. To ensure that any equipment, fittings and fixtures required on the vehicle are present and serviceable
3. Roadworthiness checks not only contribute to road safety by making sure the vehicle is functioning properly, they are also important for environmental reasons and for ensuring fair competition in the transport sector.

Here in Ghana, currently the DVLA has licensed four SPC at Weija, BIVAC at Kuntunse, BenSam at Oyibi and Vito at Dome. But all these VICs test for new registration and private vehicles.

Every now and then, the issue has come up about why they are not allowed to inspect commercial vehicles. Given that commercial vehicles are those that are usually carrying more passengers and also those most prone to accidents according to available road safety statistics.

The DVLA still does inspection and road safety analysis for commercial transport, a process that has for long been tagged as corrupt. So much so that vehicles need not be brought to test centers yet stickers can be issued.

VICs on the flip side, with their limited numbers and scope (southern belt) guard better against issues of corruptibility and there exists a very high probability that most commercial vehicles would hardly show up there but rather prefer that the status quo as it is at the DVLA premises pertains.

VICs may be inundated by cars during working days and inspecting commercial vehicles would increase their load. But that looks like the surest bet to ensuring increased sanity on our roads.

Truth is that most of these vehicles especially the trotro’s (mini buses) that carry a minimum of fifteen passengers are NOT FIT (caps mine) to ply our roads. They are a road safety threat that miraculously keeps killing people miraculously on an almost daily basis.

For so long as not everyone can afford private vehicles, the commercial transport community would always stay relevant, very relevant. The onus lies now on the authorities that be and on individuals to champion the cause of safety anytime, anywhere any day on our roads.

VICs play an important role in ensuring this safety, countries the world over who take VIC operations seriously are known to have reduced their accident figures, we can certainly do same. God bless our homeland Ghana.

Thanks for reading

Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban
newcguide@gmail.com