About 118 trucks acquired by the Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL), a private company, for the national towing service have become idle because of the inability of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) to give the go-ahead for the implementation of the project.
An agreement was signed between the RSMSL and the NRSC in 2013 to roll out the National Towing Service, as stipulated in the Road Traffic Act, L.1. 2180. However, after the initial fanfare, the project stalled.
The equity shareholders of RSMSL are contemplating taking legal action against the NRSC if efforts to deal with the bottlenecks fail.
The Communications Manager of RSMSL, Mr Roland Walker, told the Daily Graphic: “According to the NRSC, trends on accident fatalities indicate that 22 per cent of deaths from road crashes in Ghana are caused by disabled, accident and broken-down vehicles on roads. This is the more reason the delay in executing the contract to kick-start a national towing project is worrying.”
Bureaucratic bottlenecks
However, the NRSC says that the inability of the towing service to roll out its activities after three years is not the doing of the commission, since deliberations on the project are no longer in its hands.
The Head of Communications at the NRSC, Mr Kwame Koduah Atuahene, told the Daily Graphic that “it is purely due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and the delay is not our making”.
He said a transactional advisor (TA) who would be responsible for the appraisal of the agreement had almost finished his work and, therefore, the process was out of the NRSC’s purview.
“The good thing is that the TA has completed his work and it is currently before the Attorney-General,” he said.
Speaking on the delay in rolling out the national towing service, which has prevented RSMSL from committing its resources, Mr Atuahene said: “We regret it; they are in to provide certain services. Each time we see people with disabilities as a result of road crashes, it affects all of us. Unfortunately, it is not a transaction that could be solved easily.”
He said he was, however, optimistic that the project would soon see the light of day, in view of the extensive work that had been done on the agreement.
Towing trucks wasting away
Meanwhile, millions of Ghana cedis which had been invested by RSMSL in a fleet of towing trucks and other logistical equipment to complement the efforts of the NRSC to curb the increasing spate of deaths caused by disabled, broken down and accident cars on the roads are going waste as the trucks continue to be exposed to the vagaries of the weather.
Accident figures
In the first quarter of 2016, provisional figures supplied by the NRSC indicated that the number of deaths on roads in Ghana was 508, an increase from 395 during the same period last year.
The first quarter provisional results showed that the Brong Ahafo Region recorded 108 deaths, the highest in the country.
Greater Accra came second with 90 deaths, followed by Ashanti with 78 deaths.
People aged below 18 made up 83 of the number of deaths recorded through accidents.
According to the NRSC, road accidents alone cost Ghana 1.6 per cent of GDP annually, which translates to about 2,000 deaths on the average per year.
Also, almost 60 per cent of crash victims are within the productive bracket of 18.
Source: Daily Graphic
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THE COUNTRY IS FULL OF IDIIOOOTS.
WILL YOU BRING ALL THIS IF YOUR ROADS ARE GOOD?
Not only are the towing trucks wasting away, most of the employees of the company were sacked. All those traffic directors who wore orange overall you use to see at traffic lights have all been sacked because the company is not operating. The government is playing politics with the issue because they feel the zoom lion man who owns the company is NPP . But they should think of ghanaiana who are dying because of this.
One of my daily worries is on how lives should to lost to broken down vehicles and trucks on highways. Lost my bro to a broken down articulator truck which fully had crossed Assin Fosu- kumasi road. this car had been on the road all day yet could not be towed for a tragic death to occur in the night. Our President should act as expected to ensure this service is implemented. private company having our safety at heart should rather be applauded not to make such good service one of the many political projects.
THIS IS A ***barred word*** GOVERNMENT AND ITS INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WHO HAVE SHOWN TOTAL DISREGARD FOR GHANAIAN LIVES AT THE EXPENSE OF ***barred word***, STEALING, AND AMASSING INCREDIBLE WEALTH. JDM AND HIS NDC ARE PLANNING HOW TO CONVERT THESE TOW TRUCKS TO USE THEM FOR THEIR SENSELESS CAMPAIGN AND DISHING THEM TO THEIR CRONIES. THESE NDC ***barred word*** SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR EVERY SINGLE LIFE LOST ON OUR ROADS IF THERE IS REAL ACCOUNTABILITY. MAHAMA'S INSANE GHANA FOR YOU!!!!!!!!
we never finish what we start.hmmm, tax payers money down the drain
This is what happens when you put the cart before the horse
Oooooo Mother Ghana!!!! With all these the President, his wife and the simpa panyin the joker from Cape Coast stood dancing at the manifesto launch. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on the government