Highway ramps cause more harm than good

Ho, March 5, GNA - Volta Regional Fire Officer, Mr Alex Martels Hughes, has said ramps and similar structures built as speed checks were causing more harm than good to road safety in the country. He therefore appealed to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) to consider the concerns expressed by the Ghana National Fire Service on the matter.

"My prayer is that one day, the Ghana Road Safety Commission and the Ghana Highway Authority will come to the realization that the concerns expressed by the Service against these strips are genuine and worth considering."

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes was speaking at the extrication competition for personnel of the Service from Denu, Ho, Kpando and Hohoe. The competition sought to test the preparedness and professionalism of personnel in rescuing accident victims. The team from Denu topped with 320 points beating Ho to second place with 319 points.

Mr Hughes said the state of the Michel Camp-Kpong-Afienya and Ablekuma road provide graphic example of the damage the ramps were causing to highways.

He said as vehicles crossed these ramps continuously their joints, bearings, tyres, shocks, engine seats and other parts get weakened thus predisposing those vehicles to accidents.

Mr Elvis Gbesemate, Volta Regional Director of the NRSC, said the Commission was equally concerned about the issue of the Highway ramps and associated structures and their implications for road safety but that the Commission could only offer advice on such matters. He said roads could be designed in other ways to check speeding and suggested that roads could be elevated in certain portions to compel drivers to slow down when they got there. Highways could be diverted away from human settlements so as to avoid the construction of such ramps to slow down drivers as they drive through such populated areas.

Mr Gbesemate said pedestrian walk ways with guard rails could also be constructed in every community through which a major road passes just as is done in major towns and cities.

He said road safety is a collective responsibility and there was need for drivers also to be abreast with emerging road safety regulations, laws and sanctions and training requirements. On the damages caused to vehicles by such ramps, Mr Gbesemate said these were real and that he personally lost his car's gear box while driving over one of such ramps. Mr Mama Sawyerr Markwei, Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), said haphazard construction of speed ramps by communities was illegal and that chiefs could be arrested.