A new phase of the National Road Safety Campaign was launched in the Eastern Region at the beginning of this month by the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam.

Since this launch, highway traffic gendarmes in Boumnyebel in the Nyong and Kelle Division of the Centre Region have continued to be on the lookout for offending motorists.

Talking to Cameroon Tribune on Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Boumnyebel, about 90 km from Yaounde and 145 km from Douala, a gendarmerie source said fines collected in 2014 for traffic offences amounted to FCFA 120 million.

Similarly, at least FCFA 20 million has been collected this year in the division over a distance of 75 km on the Nkeng Likok-Ndoupe stretch of the Yaounde-Douala highway.

The source explained that the fines are collected after issuing receipts provided by the State Counsel’s office in Eseka, the divisional headquarters.

The money is then paid every week into the Eseka Treasury and reports submitted to gendarmerie headquarters in Yaounde.

According to ‘Adjudant Chef Major’ Engozo’o Ela Thomas, the head of the Gendarmerie Highway Traffic Unit at Boumnyebel, the novelty of this latest campaign is impounding the vehicles of erring drivers.

The drive was necessitated by the fact that earlier road safety campaigns saw motorists fall back into their old habits after passing through checkpoints, he explained.

Mobile gendarme traffic wardens on motorbikes are deployed along the highway, equipped with special mirrors for checking the state of vehicles from below as well as devices for detecting any dangerous metal objects on board.

On the field, just a few kilometres from Boumnyebel in the direction of Yaounde, a gendarmerie team led by ‘Adjudant Chef’ Ouaziri Ruben flagged down a Toyota saloon car transporting eight, instead of seven passengers.

Because the booth was overloaded with luggage, the driver was fined FCFA 25,000, which he grudgingly paid.

This did not however stop his vehicle from being impounded because the road-worthiness attestation had also expired two days earlier. “The vehicle will only be released after you get the right paper,” Ouaziri Ruben reminded the driver as the car was being driven to the gendarmerie station.

Further up the highway at Ngoung, about 15 km from Boumnyebel, the driver of an Elections Cameroon, ELECAM pick up van was fined FCFA 3,600 because his front number plate was not legible.

A gendarmerie source told Cameroon Tribune that motorists who refuse to pay their fines on the spot have their cases forwarded to the State Counsel at Eseka where the amount is multiplied by 10.