As part of the government’s effort to implement the Motor Third Party Traffic Act, the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has embarked on an exercise in Wa to enforce the vehicle insurance Law.
Mr. Fredrick Boakye-Yiadom, the Upper West Regional Manager of the NIC, in an interview with Info Radio, explained that the purpose of the exercise was to ensure that all vehicles using the road have active insurance.
“What we are doing basically is an enforcement exercise. The laws of Ghana, the motor third party traffic law stipulate that any vehicle that should be on the road must be insured, must has at least third party traffic insurance, that is the basic. So what we are doing right now is to enforce the law with the police”, he explained.
He indicated that they were doing the exercise in phases, with that being the first phase of the exercise which targeted only private vehicles and would later move to the tricycles and motors in subsequent phases.
He added they were doing the exercise in partnership with the Ghana Police Service and some insurance companies to compel vehicles with expired insurance to renew it on the spot.
Explaining the advantages of the third-party traffic act, Mr Boakye-Yiadom mentioned that, the act protected and catered for third-party liabilities in case the vehicle got involved in an accident.
He explained that in terms of accidents and the victims being taken to the hospital, as part of the third-party traffic act, the hospital would give the victims first aid at the cost of the insurance company.
“It also caters for road safety emergencies, for example if there is an accident and there are injuries and the injured are rush to the hospital, it is mandated that the hospital stabilizes them and give them first aid”, he explained.
The NIC Regional Boss added that if fatalities occurred, the third-party traffic act required the insurance company to pay limited compensation to the families of the deceased person.