In 2008, the National Road Safety Commission in furtherance of its advocacy and research mandate, conducted a study on the magnitude of the use of “home-used” or “second-hand” tyres and its impact on the road safety situation in Ghana.
Findings from the study confirmed among others that, 75% of tyres imported into the country were used tyres, which presupposes that three in every four tyres sold in Ghana were used tyres.
It also said that, the patronage of used tyres in Ghana increases the risk of crash (accident) occurrence by 30%. Also, 15.2% of vehicles involved in fatal crashes had some form of defect prior to the crash, which was in the form of a tyre burst or blown up tyre pressures situations that also constituted 4.4% of these defects.
At this background, the Commission intended to formulate a policy which was in accordance to Regulation 62 of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012, L. I 2180 to bring into force the Implementation of the tyre Standardization, a move which sought to have a ban on the importation and use of substandard tyres in the country, to ensure adherence as provided in the law.
The commission began broad consultations engaging stakeholders in the road transport sector, to brainstorm and deliberate on the best ways to ensure sanity in the transport sector in regards to the intended ban on importation and use of substandard tyres.
It also seeks to educate and sensitize the public and participants- automobile dealers, association of tyre dealers, transport operators, road safety advocates and some enforcement Institutions including the Ghana Standards Authority, Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) to understand the law and enforcement to the tyre standards as stipulated in the Road Traffic Regulations. The other groups included: technocrats, policy makers, tyre manufacturers and tyre dealers.
It was in this same vein that, the Abbosey Okai Tyre dealers Association invited the NRSC to their General Meeting to further seek more education in regards to how the law would affect their operations ahead of its implementation later in this year September.
In a brief remark, the Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission, Ing. Mrs. May Obiri Yebaoh assured the tyre dealers that the consultations would continue up till the time the policy will finally take off to ensure that the final document captures all concerns and suggestions comprehensively. According to her, the law is a good one that would help check and reduce crashes related cases on our roads.
She, therefore, advised the dealers to wholeheartedly accept and support the Commission on the move to save more lives that could even include theirs and that of their family members as road safety was a shared and collective responsibility.
The Director in charge of Planning and Programming (NRSC), Mr. David Osafo Adonteng who took the dealers through the law said, it comes in phases to cover the Importer, the dealers and users, adding that the law has ways of dealing with all of them.
He added that, for a dealer who sells a substandard tyre to a user, would be sanctioned under the law, whereas a user who also buys and put under the car would be ceased when visited the DVLA for road worthy and would be asked to change the tyre before the car would be released. Also for importers, the law will act on them should they bring anything that fell below the required standards.
The Secretary of Abossey-Okai Tyres Sellers Association, Atta-Nsafoah in an interview admitted that the Association welcomes the move to regularize standardization of tyres in the country, a move he thinks can help bring some form of sanity into the industry.
He added that, the Commission’s visit was educative to the Association, as a central point of dealing in car tyres was necessary to understand the policy and help so that the policy becomes successful when finally implemented.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
