The death of a fuel-tanker driver at Brimso, on the Accra-Kumasi highway, last Tuesday, has compelled the executives of the Ghana Tanker Drivers Union to immediately prompt authorities to destroy the speed ramps before and after the Brimso,Bridge.
The deadly speed ramps, twelve in all, have been constructed before and after the narrow Brimso Bridge in a descending hill, and expect vehicles such as well-conditioned buses, Land Cruisers and other 4×4 vehicles which speed over the deadly short speed ramps, to slow down for other vehicles to cross them and to save them from devastation.
Describing the speed ramps as needless and the cause of recent road carnage at Brimso, motorists expressed disgust at the erection of the speed ramps on a descending hill on a highway.
Speaking to The Chronicle at the spot last Thursday, George Nyaunu, the Chairman of the Ghana Tanker Drivers Union said: “The area where these ramps have been constructed is outside the towns. How can you explain this to the road users who continue to die because of the needless ramps!”
The Brimso Bridge is close to the Forestry Commission Fumigation site between Akyem Asafo and Bunso junction, and last Thursday, the Union took a couple of journalists to the spot where one of the drivers driving a TRAKKER IVECO tanker late last Tuesday, died instantly after a speeding vehicle from behind quickly entered onto his lane, to avoid a head-on collision with an incoming vehicle.
The Union driver, in an attempt to avoid jamming the car, which quickly sped to his front, ran into a metallic guard rail and into a ditch, killing the driver of the TRAKKER IVECO instantly.
The road signs have been built very close to the speed ramps to help first-time motorists on the highway.
Several motorists who spoke with the media at Brimso criticised the Roads and Transport Ministry for overseeing such “needless and deadly speed ramps on the highway, which is outside the township.”
George Nyaunu did not mince words by calling out the Roads Minister for failing to acknowledge the Union’s petition to the sector Minister, since February this year.
He said, “If the Roads Minister Mr Agbodza had acknowledged our letter requesting to meet him, some of these critical observations on our roads would have been brought to his attention. As transporters, we always want to meet our major decision makers – Road, Transport and Energy Ministries – for discussions on how we can all contribute to building our country.
Making the Union’s intentions to act quickly by instructing his members to park their trucks, should the ramps continue to remain on the highway, Mr Nyaunu said the Accra-Kumasi highway cannot continue claiming human lives.
He said an agreement in principle must be reached as soon as possible to discourage speed ramps from being constructed on a descending hill and at a spot which is outside the main town.
“We have brought you, the media, to see these hazards for yourselves and hearing from the several motorists you interviewed here, we cannot give the sector Ministry or Highways Authority any ultimatum, but we know when to advise ourselves to save our lives from needless deaths, as a result of some road engineer’s weak thinking,” George Nyaunu told the reporters.
