An assessment of drivers’ capacity in applying road signs and regulations on the highways in the Sunyani Municipality
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Date
2012-07-12
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Abstract
Road transportation provides benefits both to nations and individuals by facilitating the movement of goods and people. It enables increased access to jobs, economic market, education, recreation and health care, which in turn have direct and indirect positive impacts on the health of populations. However, the increase in road transportation has also placed a considerable burden on people’s health, especially in the form of road traffic deaths and injuries. In finding reasons for high accident occurrence, the questions the study seeks to answer include; social characteristics of commercial drivers in the Sunyani Municipality; trends and nature of accidents in the Sunyani Municipality; relationship between the characteristics of commercial drivers and incidence of accidents in the Sunyani Municipality; roles of the stakeholders in reducing the rate of accidents in the Sunyani Municipality.
One hundred and twenty-eight (128)structured questionnaires were administered to commercial drivers at selected lorry parks in the Sunyani Municipality. Data were also collected from the management staffof institutions such as GPRTU, DVLA, MTTU and GPRTU. Both descriptive and quantitative analyses were used for data presentation. Findings indicated that about 79 percent of the drivers were below 35 years of age. Also, more than 88 percent of them had no more than secondary education - out of which 20.3 percent had no formal education. The study subsequently identified a positive linear correlation between these characteristics and the occurrence of accidents in the study areas, as it was revealed that, the 37.4 percent drivers who had never been to school frequently had recorded accidents – 59 cases out of 158. In contrast, the 13.4 percent drivers who had some tertiary education only recorded 18 accidents.
The study calls for proactive drivers’ education and training as well as effective law enforcement in order to reduce the level of carnage on the roads, from the drivers’ perspective.
Description
A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science
in Development Policy and Planning, 2012