BRIBES, EXTORTION THREATEN SAFETY OF ADOMI BRIDGE (BACK PAGE)

Some officials of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) have been accused of extorting money from drivers to allow them to cross the Adomi Bridge with their overloaded trucks, at the risk of the safety of the bridge.
As a result, a section of the bridge which developed deep cracks but was repaired in July last year has started developing the same problem.
Under normal circumstances, vehicles that weigh more than the stipulated 31 tonnes are not allowed to use the bridge, but some policemen and GHA officials have allegedly turned a blind eye to that requirement because of their selfish interests.
Officials of the Ghana Road Fund Board and the Road Safety and Environment, who made this known, indicated that just last Tuesday three articulated trucks with excess load were allowed to cross the bridge at exactly 8.30 p.m.
The trucks, with registration numbers GT 5809 W, GW 6377U and GT 3126 H, weighed more than the permissible 31 tonnes allowed for heavy vehicles to cross the 52-year-old bridge.
Concerned about the safety of the bridge, the officials reported the blatant disregard for safety measures on the bridge by heavy truck drivers to the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, last Thursday.
They told the minister that last Tuesday, April 14, 2009, an operative of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) who attempted to stop the three articulated trucks from crossing the bridge was nearly assaulted by one of the drivers and his mates but the BNI official was rescued by some commercial drivers.
The driver of one of the trucks paid no heed to the BNI operative’s signals to stop and rammed into the back of his Golf 3 saloon car, destroying it.
The drivers and their mates are currently in custody to assist the police in their investigations, while the three trucks have been impounded.
A director of the Road Safety and Environment, Mr Joe-Fred Perseo, stated that when he personally contacted the staff of the GHA positioned at either end of the bridge on why they allowed the three trucks to cross, they explained that “the weighing machine became non-functional in the evening”.
Reacting to Mr Perseo’s concerns, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo described the action of the heavy truck drivers who flouted safety measures on the bridge as “a crime against the state”.
He, therefore, called for the immediate prosecution of the drivers and the mates of the three articulated trucks to serve as deterrent to other recalcitrant drivers.
According to him, since he assumed office as the Eastern Regional Minister, he had received countless complaints about the manner in which drivers were flouting safety measures on the bridge, which he said was a “national asset that must be preserved”.
He also called on policemen positioned at either end of the bridge to refrain from extorting money from drivers, since “your individual interest will endanger the safety of this national asset and innocent lives”.
The Adomi Bridge was closed to traffic for three weeks in July 2008 after three steel beams supporting the facility developed serious cracks, resulting in a depression on a section of the road.