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The National Insurance Commission (NIC), in collaboration with the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTD) of the Nkawkaw Divisional Police, has embarked on an exercise to clamp down on vehicles without insurance.

The three-day exercise, which began last week Tuesday, ended on Thursday with 103 vehicles impounded by the police who were led by the Eastern Regional MTTD Commander, Chief Superintendent Stephen Ahiatafu.

Among offences for which some vehicles were impounded were operating without licence or with expired licence or without insurance cover.

Indiscipline

Chief Superintendent Ahiatafu lamented the indiscipline of drivers at Nkawkaw and other parts of the region, who according to him, knew what to do but had refused to do them, thus posing danger to their own lives and that of passengers.

"Most of the drivers here and other parts of the region are very undisciplined; we have been embarking on the awareness campaigns for a very long time and they know what to do but they are only being reluctant.

“The Nkawkaw township has a lot of alternative routes so when they see the police, they dodge and use other routes because they know they are not doing the right thing. This endangers their lives and that of passengers and motorists," he said.

He said, ahead of the Kwahu Easter celebration, the police would continue to enforce the traffic regulations and deal with drivers who plied the roads without insurance, fake insurance, expired insurance, unregistered vehicles and drivers without licence.

He appealed to drivers plying long distances be cautious and rest at safe places when they were tired on the way, to avoid sleeping behind the wheels, which could lead to accidents.

Enforcement

The Eastern Regional Manager of the National Insurance Commission (NIC), Ms Esther Konadu Asiedu, said the exercise ahead of the Kwahu Easter celebration was to enforce the vehicle insurance policies to prevent and protect victims of "The motor insurance policies help the NIC to make sure compensation is paid to accident victims by the insurance companies the vehicles subscribed to. This helps prevent and protect accident victims.

“With the Kwahu Easter nearing, it is important that we make sure vehicles are insured and we take out vehicles without insurance off the roads, to protect passengers and drivers themselves," she said.

She urged passengers to take advantage of the motor insurance data base, which allows them to check the validity of vehicle's insurance before they jump into them, using the short code *920*57# and dialing the vehicle's registration number.

As part of the exercise, Ms Asiedu said the insurance companies within Nkawkaw were invited to instantly insure the impounded vehicles before releasing them.

She urged drivers and vehicle owners who had been subjected to unfair treatment by their insurance companies after reporting their accident claims to petition the NIC to take them up and get what was due them.