Fix that car sticker before the police fix you - Sammy's take

That’s my command and caution to Kwame Gyan of the NCA. On Wednesday, he asked on Facebook if not fixing your roadworthy sticker was an offence.

I had wanted to talk about concerns expressed by MPs over the rampant cases of the secret recording of private conversations. I wanted to tell them there is no need to contemplate new laws to fight it.

First, it is a violation of a person’s constitutional right to interfere with their private conversations. You are only permitted to do so if the purpose, among others, is to prevent the commission of a crime. Yes, Article 18 does not provide sanctions for the breach but a victim will get money in damages from the violator in a civil suit.

The Data Protection Act prohibits and punishes the practice. So I was surprised when an MP read out on radio private WhatsApp chats he had with a colleague. He needed to prove to the world that his colleague was not truthful on the Cash-for-Seats committee report saga. It is also a punishable criminal offence to circulate nude or images of sexual encounters.

Let me return to the education that it is a punishable offence to have your roadworthy sticker anywhere other than “on the right inner-side of the front windscreen” of your car. Sections 94 and 95 of the Road Traffic Act (2004) prohibit driving or allowing your car to be driven unless this sticker can be found fixed to the right place on the windscreen. The law requires that you apply to the DVLA for a duplicate if it is lost or defaced.

Stop fighting the police ignorantly about this because the law’s requirement in Regulation 8 of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 is for the sticker to be fixed “in a manner that makes it readily identifiable by a police officer or an officer of the Licensing Authority.”

The law says “[a] person who contravenes a provision of this regulation commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than five penalty units and not more than twenty-five penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than thirty days or both.”

So there is the little education, and I suppose it doesn’t make sense to have to waste your time at a police station and later in court and to pay up to GHS 300.00 and/or go to jail for a month for not fixing that sticker “on the right inner-side of the front windscreen” of your car or vehicle.

Don’t go arguing with any police officer about this ever again!

These same laws (section 22 of the Road Traffic Act) prohibit leaving things "on or over a road or walkway to interfere with safe and free movement".

May the souls of Ebony and those who died with her rest in peace. But may authorities enforce these laws to avoid such needless carnage on our roads. !

Samson Lardy Anyenini

February 10th, 2018