STICK TO PERMISSIBLE LOAD — POLICE TELL TRUCK DRIVERS (PAGE 30)

Articulated truck drivers have been cautioned to ensure that they load within the stipulated tonnage to protect roads and enable them to last the period for which they were constructed.
The warning came after the management of the Axle Load Control Unit on the Tema Motorway had assessed that about 98 per cent of articulated trucks using the Motorway were loaded with 11 tonnes of goods, which was a tonne above the permissible weight on the road.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview on the motorway, the Head of the Axle Load Control Unit, Mr Albert Owusu Ansah, said some trucks avoided the weigh bridge by using unapproved routes through Afienya, Dodowa, Madina, the Ashaiman Bypass and the Spintex-Sakumono roads.
He said those who offended most were articulated trucks which conveyed transit goods from the port to Ghana’s neighbouring countries.
Mr Owusu Ansah disclosed that the offence attracted a fine of between GH¢100 and GH¢150 or imprisonment of not less than three years or both.
He said the provision of more weigh bridges would help to minimise the situation, which was now getting out of hand.
Explaining the need for trucks to load minimally, Mr Owusu Ansah said the weight of the trucks put pressure on the roads, damaging them in a short time after they had been constructed.
He said apart from destroying the roads, the trucks had the tendency for causing multiple accidents and, therefore, appealed to their drivers to help protect lives and property.
He cited the Tema Beach road as an example, saying that some years to come, the effect of the weight of trucks would manifest, because continuous pressure on the road would soon bring it to the sea level, which was environmentally dangerous.
He said by its nature, the beach road allowed trucks loaded up to 10 tonnes, while the Motorway could stand the weight of 11 tonnes.
Mr Owusu Ansah stated that a new axle load control unit with a weigh bridge was under construction on the beach road before the rail crossing to solve some of the problems of overloading.
He was of the view that unannounced checks to arrest the trucks had not achieved the maximum result because immediately the highway officials left the scene, the drivers still used the road.
Mr Owusu Ansah appealed to the law enforcement agencies to assist the unit to check those trucks, because they sometimes refused to stop for checks and rather drove dangerously past.

MOTORWAY ACCIDENT KILLS ONE PERSON (BACK PAGE, JANUARY 7)

ONE person died on the spot and 10 others sustained serious injuries when a Mercedes Benz 207 bus, with registration number GW 9402 Z, on which they were travelling veered off the Accra-Tema Motorway and crashed into a ditch after hitting a Kia pick-up vehicle.
The Kia truck, with registration number GR 4756 V, had lost control after skidding on palm oil that had spilled on the road.
The body of the deceased, whose name was given as Ibrahim Osmanu, 28, has been sent to the Police Hospital in Accra.
The driver of the Kia pick-up, which was loaded with the palm oil, escaped but his mate was arrested by the police and is being held for investigations.
Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic at the scene of the crash, the Metropolitan Director of the National Mobilisation Programme, Mr Abraham Reynolds, who was one of the first people to arrive at the scene, said at about 5.30 a.m. yesterday, the Kia truck, loaded with containers of palm oil, on reaching the Trassaaco Valley Estates, got its cargo pouring on the road.
He said the Mercedes Benz 207 bus, on its way from Accra, on reaching the accident spot, lost control and veered off the road into a ditch, causing the death of the driver.
He said all the gallons of palm oil on the Kia truck got destroyed.
Mr Reynolds said the presence of the oil made the road slippery, making the Benz bus driver to lose control and hitting the KIA pick-up before veering into the ditch.
The metal head of the Kia truck got detached from its wooden body and the driver drove away, leaving his mate behind at the accident scene.
Personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service in Tema used foam to clean the road to avoid further accidents.