Members of Parliament have sounded the alarm over the perilous trend of transporting heavy shipping containers on low-bed trailers without proper twist locks or securing mechanisms, warning that the practice is a ticking time bomb for road users.
Lawmakers warned that unsecured containers repeatedly falling off haulage trucks on major highways across the country have caused devastating accidents, severe traffic gridlocks, costly road infrastructure damage, and tragic loss of life.
Raising the issue on the floor of the House, the Member of Parliament for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai, Bright Asamoah Brefo, tagged the menace as a pressing national safety crisis.
He lamented that innocent commuters and roadside vendors are paying the ultimate price for the utter negligence of certain transport operators.
“Our citizens are being buried in their cars. Innocent families, commuters in trotros, and roadside traders are being flattened into oblivion by falling steel boxes because a driver or a transport owner wanted to save five minutes at the ports,” he said.
The MP pointed to Regulation 52 of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2180), which explicitly mandates that all cargo transported on vehicles must be firmly secured, protected, and stowed to prevent any sliding, shifting, spilling, rolling, or falling off while in transit.
Mr Brefo stressed that the chronic failure of state authorities to enforce existing traffic laws has directly contributed to scores of preventable carnage on the highways.
“Anyone who contravenes the said regulation commits an offence punishable by imprisonment, a fine, or both. Mr Speaker, we cannot sit in this august House, pass laws, and watch our citizens perish due to a blatant lack of enforcement,” he added.
Contributing to the floor debate, the Wa West MP, Peter Lanchene Toobu, expressed utter dismay over how haulage trucks laden with unfastened containers routinely exit the country’s ports and breeze past numerous security barriers unchecked.
“Why will you have a low bed and an articulated truck loading a container from the Tema Harbour or Takoradi Harbour, moving through various checkpoints—be they police, immigration, customs, axle weight—you can count them, to the point that people cannot see what is right and insist that the right thing must be done?” he questioned.
The former police officer insisted that rigorous compliance checks must strictly commence right at the point of loading, maintaining that no truck should be cleared to depart port facilities without verified safety locks in place.
“Right at the loading point, what is supposed to be done must be done before the vehicles are allowed to move,” he said.
On his part, the Guan MP, Fred Agbenyo, advocated for a crackdown on axle load limit violations, alongside mandatory pre-departure vehicle checks and routine maintenance for heavy-duty haulage fleets.
He urged transport regulators to conduct thorough pre-trip evaluations on long-distance trucks, including checking tyre integrity and assessing the physical fitness of drivers.
“There should be a strict enforcement of axle loading limits. Mandatory pre-trip vehicle inspections, that before any vehicle moves from the station, somebody ought to go in there and inspect the vehicles, inspect the tyres, and make sure that the driver is in good condition before they start plying the road,” he said.
Mr Agbenyo further condemned the appalling physical state of many haulage trucks operating on Ghanaian roads, specifically drawing attention to defective and worn-out tyres that endanger all road users.
“Most of these vehicles, when you get close to them, most of the tyres are even worn out. In some cases, there are two tyres at the back, the inside ones are worn out, while the outside ones look good, and then they start plying the road,” he added.
The parliamentarians have jointly charged the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), and key transport agencies to drastically step up enforcement to put an end to container-related carnage on the roads.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
