FOUR TRANSIT TRUCK DRIVERS WANTED (BACK PAGE)

THE Tema Motorway Axle Load Control Unit has appealed to the Ashaiman Circuit Court to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of four articulated truck transit drivers.
The four drivers, who allegedly loaded their trucks above the approved weight, are said to have failed to present themselves to be processed for court.
They are drivers of Burkina Faso bound trucks with registration numbers 11GH1373BF, 11KK4099BF and 29GH4220BF. The fourth driver of truck number NR 1120 Q has abandoned his documents and driven away his truck.
Drivers of seven other trucks that were impounded by the unit were put before the Ashaiman Circuit Court on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 for carrying load that was double the weight permitted on the roads.
The trucks, which are currently impounded at the unit’s parking lot at the Tema end of the motorway, were loaded with hardware, bicycles and accessories, cement and general goods.
Their registration numbers are P9452MD, AS92P, P2529MD, R3298M3, P6236MD, 11LL1281BF and 11PP9986BF.
The Chief Executive of the axle control unit, Mr Albert Owusu-Ansah, told the Daily Graphic on the motorway yesterday that an average of 400 transit articulated trucks used the motorway weighing bridge but most of them, especially those going to Burkina Faso, Mali and the northern sector of the country, were found guilty of overloading, which gradually affected the nature of the road network in the country.
He said the law governing axle load control was strictly in force in Niger and so trucks bound for that country had always crossed the motorway weighing bridge with underweight load.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said lack of personnel had hampered the operations of the unit and appealed to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) to provide more security and personnel for more efficient performance at the unit.
He said presently many drivers diverted their routes to avoid the motorway, where the weighing bridge is situated.
Mr Owusu-Ansah noted that the diverted routes included Sakumono-Spintex, Nungua-Teshie, Afienya-Dodowa junction and the Madina-Pokuase roads and the Ashaiman overpass.
He stated that the Ghana Highway Authority would need about six monitoring teams to check on the various routes as against the only one that they currently had.
Mr Owusu-Ansah observed that lack of space to accommodate the impounded trucks resulted in the escape of some of them during the period of being processed for court.