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29.08.2013 Social News

National Road Safety Commission holds forum

29.08.2013 LISTEN
By GNA

Accra, Aug 29, GNA - The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) on Wednesday held a stakeholder's forum to discuss the importation and use of sub-standard tyres in the country.

 
The purpose of the forum is to give an opportunity for the participants to understand the law and enforcement options and to create a platform for policy makers to benefit from the experience as industry players with public safety as the ultimate expectation.

 
The forum brought together stakeholders within the tyre industry and public-sector enforcement agencies who will assist with the implementation of the new regime including transport operators, spare-parts dealers, importers and dealers of new and used tyres, officials of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Ghana Standard Authority, the Police, officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs Division) and tyre manufacturing companies.

 
Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, Executive Director of the NRSC, said road safety is everybody's concern and has become a development issue which must necessarily attract the attention of policy makers at every level of governance and stakeholders if the nation is to achieve national targets of a single digit fatality rate by 2015.  

 
She said consistent with the practice to influence policy with research, the Commission in 2008 conducted a study to assess the impact of used tyres on road safety and that the outcome of the study was shared with stakeholders and subsequently translated into the Road Traffic Regulations (RTR)  Legislative Instrument (L.I) 2180 that came into force in July 2012.

 
Mrs Obiri-Yeboah said even though a cross section of stakeholders including transporters got the opportunity to make inputs into the law, it had become necessary to engage stakeholders further on the provisions of this new law to allow for a smooth implementation of the regulations on tryes as provided by Regulation 62 of the RTR L.I 2180. 

 
She said the NRSC had since March this year collaborated with its stakeholders to sensitize the public on the relevance of standard tyres to safety and that the NRSC's focus had been on sub-standard tyres and not used-tyres as suggested earlier by sections of the media.

 
Mr Samuel Asiamah said the position of the law gives a minimum tread depth of all categories of tyres to be 1.6mm and that excessive heat or loads could cause damage to the tyres.

 
He said research had shown that tyres whether used or not degrades and deteriorates from its original quality after six years of its manufacturing date.

 
Mr Asiamah said there was the need for transport operators in the industry and individuals to promote safety by examining their vehicle tyres pressure at least once a week before undertaking a long journey.

 
GNA

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