An Open Letter To IGP

RELOCATE POLICE BARRIER AT OFANKOR-ACCRA TO CHECK ACCIDENTS OF HEAVY DUTY TRUCKS

I would be very grateful if you could grant me space in your medium to suggest the relocation of the Ofankor police barrier due to the recent rampant road accidents it appears to be contributing to. Within the past two months seven lives have been lost due to brake failure. Let me cite two clear examples. Last July a Man parked off the road at the barrier for the wife to buy some glossaries from a shop. Before the woman could return from the shop a heavy duty track the hard failed brakes ran into the parked car killing the husband and kids on the spot. On the 9th of September another heavy duty truck loaded with sand also failed brakes and ran over a taxi cab killing three of the occupants on the spot and seriously injuring the forth after it had knocked off the metal gate used as the barrier leaving the police running helter-skelter for their dear lives..

The problem appears to be emanating from the fact that these heavy duty trucks have their breaking systems heating up when used frequently over a long stretch. With the barrier currently located downhill from the Kumasi direction, it takes quite some time to reduce the inertia with which some of these vehicles approach the barrier. In the course of the police executing their duty however, they slow down traffic and allow some of these vehicles to close in on some saloon cars thereby making them vulnerable to such accidents in the event of brake failure as was the case observed in the earlier cited examples.

Since we must cope with the topography of the road the way it is and heavy duty trucks carrying foodstuffs, essential commodities and construction materials must continue to ply it, I propose to the IGP to relocate the police barrier as a matter of urgency at the very least to a more level ground to reduce the carnage on this stretch of the road. I thereby suggest that the barrier be moved to between ACP junction and the Fraga filling station at Pokoase. Additionally, the police barrier in its current location unnecessarily slows down vehicular traffic since vehicles from the dual carriage have to converge into the single carriageway before moving on. Relocating the police barrier on the dual carriage way will therefore come with the added benefit of enabling smooth vehicular flow.

I hope that the IGP finds reason in this piece to relocate the barrier and save users of this road their lives and lost productive time spent especially in the rush hours in traffic because of this misplaced barrier. I hope the message comes clear enough that in the current state the barrier is a threat to the police themselves. Perhaps more aptly, to them it is a disaster in waiting! The time to act is now!

Yours Faithfully,

Beinpuo Ernest Sanyare Warmann
Box 451
Ofankor

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