Gas Explosion: LPG Marketers Blame DVLA, Ghana Gas For Allowing Unsuitable Tankers

The LPG Marketing Companies Association has suggested that the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), and Ghana Gas, should be held accountable for failing to ensure the suitability of the gas dispensing tankers in recent gas explosions.

According to the Association, whose members have received a lot of flak for an apparent failure to adhere to safety measures at their outlets, DVLA and Ghana Gas should not be absolved of blame for recent explosions, including the one at Atomic Junction last week, which claimed seven lives.

In a bid to curb such occurrences, the government has put in place a number of policies including the implementation of a gas re-circulation programme, which the LPG marketers are opposed to.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, the Public Relations Officer of the LPG Marketers Association, Kwame Owiredu, said that the LPG distribution outlets cannot be held solely responsible for the explosions, as the two aforementioned entities were mandated to ensure the road worthiness of the vehicles that transport and dispense the gas.

“We must have a broad view approach to LPG distribution. If there was a problem with the tanker, we don't license tankers; we don't license the BRVs. We have a licensing regime, the DVLA has to make sure that the BRVs are road-worthy and are worthy of what they are going to be used for. That is why we think the discussion of LPG should not be reduced to retailers and marketers alone,” he said.

“You can't have one isolated issue and decide to make it the norm or what has been happening on a regular basis. Our drivers are being regulated by the NPA, they have training procedures that they go through. We are making the discussion look as though it's [caused] by only LPG people. As an LPG operator, I don't sign off on the road-worthiness of the tankers carrying gas from Atuabo or their worthiness to carry on the business. We have other institutions and regimes who have to do that.”

Kwame Owiredu explained that, the tanker drivers had expressed concerns about the gas which had been supplied from Atuabo, and drawn the attention of Ghana Gas and the NPA, who had not taken it up.

He insisted that, the LPG outlets and the drivers were being unfairly singled out for blame, while those mandated to regulate them had been let off the hook.

“The drivers observed that, with the gas they carry from Atuabo, they had noticed some mishaps with the carriage and reported the matter to Ghana Gas. They also alerted the NPA. At the point of loading at the depot, [Ghana Gas] could have checked that per the specification of their gas, the BRVs that are carrying their gas meet their specifications,” he said

“That is why this whole discussion should not be reduced to LPG retailers alone, because if you are loading a BRV at the depot and it doesn't meet the specification to carry that particular gas, you should make the driver aware. You don't let the driver carry something you know his vehicle is not worthy of carrying and discharge it at a point and when there's a problem, you blame someone else. The whole safety issue should start from the depot.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana