EDITORIAL: Ban Over-Aged Vehicles

On 6th January, we took on the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), and the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) for their apparent lack of vision, which has led to various fatal lorry accidents on our roads. We made mention of the various unauthorised access roads that have been created to link the Accra-Tema Motorway, which pose a danger to users of the motorway, yet the GHA has been unconcerned not taken any action. While admitting that these two state institutions are not doing much to prevent the carnage on our roads, The Chronicle thinks some of the factors are beyond them, and therefore demand the intervention of the government. It is an undeniable fact that most of the articulated trucks that constantly break down on our highways, and cause accidents are over-aged. These trucks will obviously not be allowed to operate in the developed world, but we take advantage of their cheap prices to import them into the country. The Chronicle is, therefore, suggesting that the government places a ban on the use of such trucks in the country. This must be done by giving a grace period for the owners of these trucks to replace them with better ones. Alternatively, the government can impose heavy fees on such vehicles when they go to renew their annual road worthy licenses, to discourage people from using them in the country. Since some of the land locked countries are using Ghana�s seaports for their import and export trade, any ban imposed must be extended to them also. Somewhere in the middle of last year, there were media reports that some articulated trucks belonging to Ghanaian businessmen had been seized in Niger for overloading. If the Nigerien authorities can go to the extent of insisting that the trucks take the legal load in order to protect their roads from deterioration, then The Chronicle does not see anything wrong if Ghana also decides to ban the over-aged vehicles on her roads, to protect her citizens. The Chronicle believes the road carnage must be brought to its barest minimum, and dealing with the over-aged vehicles issue is one of the quickest ways to do that. As we noted in yesterday�s edition of our editorial, this country cannot afford to lose its human resource in such a callous manner therefore, all hands must be put on the deck to deal with the problem once and for all.