National towing programme brouhaha: views from the regions
Subsequent to the Daily Graphic report yesterday on the alarming incidences of motor accidents, some fatal, involving break-down and abandoned vehicles on the country’s roads, there are reports on the situation that have come in from the regions indicating the perspectives of drivers and the public alike on the matter.
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Kumasi
From Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, Emmanuel Baah reports of several break-down vehicles along principal streets and on roads leading to the metropolis, with some having been abandoned for more than a week.
Notable streets in the city with abandoned vehicles include stretches close to the Suame and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) roundabouts and along the Kumasi-Accra highway.
The circumstance has rendered the already bad traffic situation along the routes worse, particularly approaching the Suame roundabout area which has roads leading from it to the northern parts of the country and neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Most of the abandoned vehicles comprise heavy duty cargo trucks parked in the middle or by the sides of the road. The traffic that ensues as a result of inappropriate parking of such vehicles contribute to long hours in traffic that commuters have to endure, thus affecting socio-economic activities.
Cape Coast
Shirley Asiedu-Addo reports from Cape Coast that long-distance drivers who spoke to the Daily Graphic have urged the government to immediately set up a decentralised towing service spread across the regions as part of measures to reduce the number of fatal accidents caused by break-down vehicles on the country’s roads.
According to the drivers, lives lost through motor accidents would be reduced considerably if break-down and abandoned vehicles were removed from the roads as soon as they became faulty.
The President of the Ghana Cooperative Transport Union (GCTU) in the Central Region, Mr Ohene Gyan Ntim, in an interview, said whatever towing service would be agreed upon in the end must cooperate with the police and other road safety agencies to ensure that break-down vehicles on our roads are removed quickly.
Mr Ntim said owners of vehicles that broke down and failed to cooperate with the appointed towing agency would have to be fined heavily.
“Since most vehicles have addresses, it is possible to trace owners of abandoned break-down vehicles and require of them to do the right thing,” he said.
Koforidua
In the Eastern Region, the routes from Accra to Nkawkaw and from Accra to Akuse are two of the road stretches that record fatal accidents the most, Naa Lamilley Bentil reports.
According to the Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission ( NRSC), Mr Kwesi Yirenkyi, heavy duty vehicles carrying goods from the north of the country and Sahelian West African countries to southern Ghana often park along the section of the Accra-Kumasi highway through the Eastern Region to take a rest.
This phenomena results in other motor vehicles running into them, particularly at night between Apedwa and Nkawkaw.
Motor accidents at Akuse junction area mostly involve trucks carrying foodstuffs, especially yam from Dambai in the Northern Region.
He attributed the frequent breakdown of vehicles along the corridor to lack of maintenance on the part of vehicle owners and drivers.
Bolgatanga
From Bolgatanga, Vincent Amenuveve writes that drivers at the main Bolgatanga lorry station in the Upper East Region have made a passionate appeal to the government to implement the national vehicle towing service to help address the problems break-down vehicles were causing on the road.
They also asked that fees to be charged for the proposed service must be accommodating and not expensive.
A driver, Mr George Fordjour, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues at the station, said the group believed that when a towing service operated on the country’s roads, it would go a long way to reduce the number of motor accidents and fatalities.
According to him, there was a worrying trend of driving schools in Ghana churning out half-baked drivers.
"Besides break-down vehicles contributing to accidents and road fatalities, many drivers were also inexperienced," he said.
He called on the government to take a look at driving schools in the country and ensure that they performed creditably.
In addition, he asked for road signs to be placed at various sections of the highways to warn drivers of dangers ahead of them as they travelled.
Tamale
Samuel Duodu reports from Tamale that drivers and passengers interviewed in the Tamale metropolis regarding break-down vehicles on the country’s roads have expressed grave concerns on the matter which they agreed was posing significant danger to road users in the region.
According to them, most fatal road accidents recorded in the region were as a result of break-down vehicles, particularly involving articulated trucks left in the middle and shoulders of roads.
Last month, an accident on the Bole-Bamboi highway claimed the lives of 11 persons, including three children. That accident occurred when the bus on which they were travelling drove into an abandoned truck in the middle of the road.
A driver at the Tamale-Buipe station, Alhassan Saani, said drivers who plied the Tamale-Buipe road often encountered a lot of break-down vehicles that were sometimes left in the middle of the road or parked at the edges of the road, posing danger to other road users.
Sunyani
Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah writes from Sunyani that commercial drivers in the Brong Ahafo Region have threatened to go on a demonstration in protest against break-down vehicles on the highways, which were causing accidents and leading to loss of lives.
Some drivers who spoke to the Daily Graphic have called for collaboration among the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Ghana Road Safety Commission, the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) and other stakeholders to work and reduce the carnage on the roads.
Some of the drivers who were visibly angry blamed the havoc on the country’s roads on tipper and articulated trucks that broke down often and were left unattended to and without warning triangles to caution other road users.
A driver with the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA), Mr Emmanuel Kwaw, said it was worrying that road safety agencies looked on while break-down vehicles continued to pose danger to road users.