MTTU GETS TOUGH WITH TINTED GLASS USERS (PAGE 29)

The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service last week stepped up its efforts to enforce regulations on the use of tinted glasses by vehicles in Kumasi.
As part of the exercise, personnel of the unit arrested and prosecuted 20 more offenders.
The offenders, who pleaded guilty to the charges, were convicted on their own plea and the courts fined them various sums which totalled GH¢3,500. They ranged between GH¢240 and GH¢300
It was the second time in two weeks that the exercise to enforce regulations on the use of tinted glass had taken place in Kumasi.
In the first exercise, as many as 58 commercial and private car owners whose glasses were tinted were arrested, out of which 41 were prosecuted and convicted after the police had carried out a series of investigations into their cases.
The 41 offenders pleaded guilty and were convicted to pay various fines totalling GH¢75,590.
The acting Ashanti Regional Commander of the MTTU, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Abraham Bansah, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise would continue until the police were able to rid the Kumasi metropolis of vehicles parading the principal streets with tinted glasses.
Expressing concern over the use of tinted glasses, he said the practice undermined effective road safety campaigning because the vision of drivers was blurred anytime it rained or when the weather became foggy.
Such situations posed danger to the drivers themselves and other road users because they easily caused accidents in which innocent lives were lost and property destroyed, he said.
Mr Bansah pointed out that over the years the police had warned owners of vehicles with tinted glasses to remove them due to the threat they posed to other road users “but they had always ignored our advice, hence this exercise to enforce the regulation that bans the use of tinted glasses on our roads”.
Apart from the danger that tinted glasses pose to passengers and other road users, police investigations have also proved that some of such vehicles are used to carry out criminal activities.
Mr Bansah said some of them were also used to transport stolen goods from one point to another, while others were also used to perpetuate the smuggling of goods across the country.
“By their nature, it is very difficult to see the occupants of such vehicles when they offend the law, a situation which makes it easy for them to abscond,” he said.
He noted that acting under the cover of darkness, some of those vehicles were also used to promote immoral activities such as sexual intercourse, stressing, “Sometimes active sex takes place in some of these vehicles parked at secluded areas and during odd hours, hence our resolve to weed them out from the system to enhance sanity on the roads and the environment.”
Mr Bansah warned that “since the MTTU will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who ignore our advice, it is better for them to remove their tinted glasses before the law catches up with them”.