The Gambia Police Force on Wednesday started removing colored lights on vehicles commuting on the roads, describing the lights as “irregular lights.”

Unconfirmed numbers of vehicles have been affected by the police clamp down.

Speaking to the state broadcaster GRTS, ASP Lamin Njie, police spokesman, said “most of the time these vehicle owners would not remove these lights but they will maintain them and it is causing serious hazards in the traffic because it affects other drivers as it temporary blinds them.”

He said many people attached the lights on their vehicles just for decoration, adding “that is also a serious issue that the decoration will be dazzling around and make difficulty for other vehicles coming on the road.”

According to him, “these lights are for environment experiencing fog and snow. The Gambia is a different environment with different weather condition and it definitely doesn’t need it.”

ASP Njie reiterated that “if you have lights that are of different colours or a number of lights you have on the vehicle exceed this number, the Police will definitely take the rightful measures to remove the lights.”

Meanwhile, he said following a number of interaction with the public that the police was meant to understand that “one of the issues that cause accident is lights that are attached on the vehicles.”

However, he urged vehicle owners and drivers to comply with the rules prescribed by the police and avoid breaking the law.

The Traffic Regulation Act of the Gambia states that there shall be two lights on a vehicle which should either be white or yellow colours.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba