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World economic crisis hitting raw nerves of Ghana`s economy

25.03.2009 LISTEN
By Daniel Nonor ([email protected]) - Ghanaian Chronicle

The popular Odorkor-Kaneshie 'Space Buses' have over the years served the residents of Accra. They have enjoyed patronage from all types of the citizenry; from workers, to traders and to school children. However, in recent years our observation has shown that most of the buses seem to have outlived their usefulness on the roads of Accra.

Accra File took a tour around the areas where these buses ply, and we have also done some physical observation of the conditions of the buses, which our results have shown how weak and rusty most of these Space Buses have become. The have indeed become very dangerous for the very passengers that they carry.

Some of the seats in the buses are very weak and the cushion covers have all been damaged leaving only the bare metal for the passengers to sit on.

The drivers and their mates have very poor maintenance culture which has contributed to the bad conditions of the buses. The insides of most of these buses are dirty and woe betides any passenger who complains.

In the buses, the nails and pointed metals are exposed in the seats, which is very dangerous. This can easily hurt or cut a passenger who might not know and sit on it.

In these times of rampant accidents on our roads, the Space Buses are very guilty of parking at wrong places on our roads, and they create unnecessary traffic.

They pick and alight passengers just any how without respect to the other road users.

They sometimes stop in the middle of the road, which is wrong for commercial buses to do, and passengers.

Some of them are very old with bad engines which make too much noise and they also release a lot of smoke fumes which can pollute the environment.

The drivers and mates throw caution to the wind and over-load their cars to very dangerous limits.

The most ironical part of it all is that these Space Buses carry out their businesses with out any authority intervening to check them. It has been alleged that some of these buses belong to the police, but this has not been proved yet.

The Accra File is alerting the Drivers Vehicle License Authority to intervene and check the conditions of these space buses.

The police and the MTTU must also be up and doing to arrest this situation before it escalates.

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