GHA IMPOUNDS OVERLOADED TRUCKS (PAGE 29)

THE Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has impounded 14 overloaded articulated trucks in Kumasi for exceeding their permitted axle loads.
Some of the trucks, which are permitted to carry goods weighing 10 tonnes, had excess loads of about nine tonnes.
The trucks, which were loaded with plywood and cashew nuts, were impounded at the GHA’s axle load checkpoint at Tanoso in Kumasi as the authority moved to check the destruction of the major highways by overloaded trucks.
The Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Zonal Head of Axle Load of the GHA, Reverend Kwaku Osei Kusi, told the Daily Graphic that the police were preparing dockets to prosecute the offending drivers.
Besides, the authority would ensure that the excess load was on-loaded before the trucks were allowed to continue their journeys.
The trucks, which were from the Brong Ahafo Region, were on their way to the Takoradi Port from where the goods were to be exported.
Rev Kusi said the overloading of trucks was one of the major factors that contributed to the early destruction of roads in the country.
Consequently, he said, the GHA would not countenance any attempts by drivers to destroy what the government had spent millions to build.
“Some truck owners and drivers want to take this nation for a ride but we will not allow that to happen. We are going to be tough on offending drivers,” he said.
He cited a recent case in Mali in which over 100 trucks being driven by Ghanaians were impounded for exceeding their axle loads.
“If it is happening to our people in another country, why can’t we do the same in our own country?” he asked.
Rev Kusi, therefore, urged truck owners and their drivers to ensure that the right thing was done to avoid their falling foul of the law.