Editorial (Daily Searchlight of Tuesday, 12th July, 2022)
Checking one’s sight before the acquisition of a driver’s license under the current reforms initiated by the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Ghana Optometric Association (GOA) is the first requirement for the issuance of a license.
“You must pass your eye test which is now a pre-requisite for the acquisition of a driver’s license,” Dr. Alfred Gardemor, who is a Senior Optometrist at the Nsawam Government Hospital said this at the sixth Ghana News Agency-Tema Regional Office and the Ghana Optometric Association fortnightly public sensitization initiative “GNA-GOA: My Eye! My Vision!”
The GNA-GOA: My Eyes! My Vision!’ initiative is a collaborative public education advocacy campaign to promote the need for people to access eye care and also to draw attention to vision health.
The initiative also seeks to challenge the public and policymakers to focus on vision as a health issue, which forms a critical component of mankind’s wellbeing but is often neglected.
The Daily Searchlight commends the brains behind the “GNA-GOA: My Eye! My Vision!” initiative. Indeed, it is a fact that many factors are behind the rising levels of accidents on Ghana’s roads. It is also quite possible that poor vision could be a major factor in the carnage. That being so, any measure to ensure that drivers undergo eye tests before being licensed is a step in the right direction.
We hope that the initiative would receive the backing of all Ghanaians. A blind or medically blind driver is a danger not only to himself, but to all road users. Awareness of the condition may prevent such drivers getting on the road, or seeking assistance to make them safe on the roads.
We hope that this initiative would be maintained, and that it would go a long way towards making our roads safer for all.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight of Tuesday,, 12th July,, 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).
