The Sand and Stone Contractors Association of Ghana (SSCAG) has expressed dissatisfaction with the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) over the authority’s new directive on axle load. The GHA has directed that with effect from January 1, 2014 no tipper truck can load above its bucket level  However, under the directive, GHA will allow tipper trucks from government agencies to load 38 tonnes capacity, while private tipper truck drivers will be compelled to load 27 tonnes capacity.   The association has, therefore, challenged the authority to come out and educate the public on the standards guiding the importation of trucks (type, size and tonnage) if there are any.  The association pleaded that it be given two years for its members to phase out completely all over-weight trucks which the authorities permitted into the country in order not to throw thousands out of their jobs. Concerns of the association Addressing a press conference in Accra, the National Secretary of the SSCAG, Mr Jonathan Omabale, stated that it was unfair for the GHA to allow tipper trucks from government agencies to load 38 tonnes, while private tipper truck drivers were compelled to load 27 tonnes.   That, he said, affected their businesses, since tipper trucks could not load half-way, adding that “sand owners usually reject half-loaded trucks”. He added that by that directive from the GHA, the government had purported to get them out of their jobs.  He further indicated that the government failed to carry out education and sensitisation for its members, for which reason it was improper for its members to be arrested for no cause. For his part, the National Chairman of the SSCAG, Mr Anthony Agbemehia, called on the government to quickly address the concerns of the association to forestall a possible demonstration to register their grievances.  Suggested Solution The association called on the Ghana Standards Authority, the GHA, the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority to come out with a common position on the importation of trucks and educate the public to enable importers to understand the technicalities involved.  

  A new television station in Kumasi – Light TV - located at the poolside of the Sports Hotel, near the Baba Yara Stadium, caught fire Sunday, turning a wedding ceremony taking place in the area into a ‘run-for-your-life’ affair. In the midst of the pandemonium, the couple, as well as guests, had to take refuge at safe places, as a plume of smoke emerged from the top floor of the two-storey building housing the TV station, which is currently doing test transmission. The TV station, which started test transmission about a month ago, is owned by Mr Kwame Kyei, Chief Executive Officer of Unity Group of Companies, which includes Unity Oil Ghana Limited. Fire personnel had to work hard to bring the blaze under control to prevent what would have been a disastrous spectacle. No one was hurt but the tinted window glasses on the building were broken. Officials of the television station confirmed that no major destruction was recorded, as major installations were not affected by the fire. When the Daily Graphic got the scene at about 3.30pm, some of the guests had re-joined the couple for the wedding ceremony and food was being served. Out of fear, however, others refused to return to the ceremony. According to an eyewitness, the couple had just finished exchanging rings when some thick black smoke was seen from the top of the building housing the TV station. About 400 people at the ceremony took to their heels, as fire fighters were called in. Fire officers would not immediately disclose the possible cause of the fire but a source at the station suspected electrical fault. The Asokwa District Police Commander, Superintendent Rev Dr S.N. Adane-Ameyaw, who was at the scene with some uniformed men, said he was in church when he had a message from the Police Information Room that the Sports Hotel was on fire. However, when he got to the scene he realised it was TV station that rather was on fire. Fortunately no one was hurt.  

Telegraph.co.ukAirplane's Wing Collides With Building in Johannesburg Before TakeoffTIMENBC News has reported that a British Airways commercial flight bound for London failed to make it off the tarmac in Johannesburg on Sunday night after one of the craft's wings slammed into a building near the runaway. Harriet Tolputt, a representative for ...Plane wing clips Joburg airport buildingThe AustralianBritish Airways pilot 'missed warning sign' before wing hit airport buildingThe Times (subscription)Photo: British Airways Jumbo Jet Strikes a BuildingBusinessweekSydney Morning Herald -BBC News -South China Morning Postall 32 news articles »

  Mobile Health Technology (MOTECH), an innovation for people to access information on their health on mobile phones, has been launched at Dawurampong in the Gomoa West in the Central Region. The partners implementing the technology have developed two services that run on the mobile phone. One of them is the  Mobile Midwife, which sends voice messages in local languages to pregnant women and mothers to help them to take care of their pregnancies and the health of their infants. The other is Nurses’ Application, which will enable nurses to use the mobile phone to enter data on the care they give to patients. Ms Karen Romano, the Country Director of Grameen Foundation, said the mobile technology for community health was born out of a partnership between the Ghana Health Service, Grameen Foundation, Colombia University, Saving Lives at Birth Initiative, Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Norway Government, Grand Challenges of Canada and the World Bank. CHPS facilities  She said the partners identified the need to give women in rural communities more accurate health information and simplify client data managed at the CHPS facilities.  Speaking at the function, Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, the Gomoa West District Chief Executive, commended the initiators and the funding partners and described the  innovation as very useful and added that it was impacting positively on health delivery in the district. He said MOTECH would help the Ghana Health Service to achieve Millennium Development Goals Four and Five, that  relate to reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health respectively, and also assist in data management in the health system. Funding She recalled that in 2009, the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation provided funding to the partners to test ideas on how the mobile phone could be used to improve maternal and child health in Ghana. Ms Romano said from January, to date, 1,877 pregnant women and 5,831 children under five years had been registered with the MOTECH in Gomoa West. She said Grameen Foundation was working to assist Gomoa West District Health Management Team (DHMT) to train nurses to use MOTECH. Dr Yaw Ofori Yeboah, the District Director of Health, said Gomoa West had many health challenges but they needed to pay special attention to pregnant women and children. He said almost 13 per cent of pregnant women did not attend pre-natal clinic last year; 46 per cent delivered at home and only 50 per cent of women who delivered at home made use of post-natal services. Dr Yeboah attributed the causes of the challenges to traditional practices and beliefs which encourage pregnant women to seek health care in prayer camps and avoid hospital attendance. Mr Francis Kojo Arthur, Member of Parliament for Gomoa West, said a plot of land had been acquired for the construction of a polyclinic at Dawurampong. Obrifo Ahunako Ahor Ankobea 11, the Omanhene of Gomoa Akyempim who chaired the function, spoke against the rise in teenage pregnancies in the district and said “it has rendered the future very bleak.” —  GNA  

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[Vanguard]Nollywood actor, Jim Iyke, may have returned to his old ways of being in the news for the wrong reasons. He was reportedly arrested in Ghana after being involved in a public fight.

  In Ghana, it is common for communities to erect illegal speed humps in their localities to check speeding by drivers.   Humps are raised devices, parabolic in shape and placed across a road to slow down traffic. They are often considered the most traditional physical traffic calming solution, they slow down traffic more gradually, they are ideal for residential roads and are generally used to bring speed to between 10 and 20 mph. Controlling vehicles with a speed humps is the most effective method to improve the safety at a parking lot or driveway. Speed humps and road signs are the best ways to communicate to drivers to keep their speed   to a minimum. There are  different types  of  speed ramps and these are the “Economy Solid  Plastic speed humps”,  “Portable EPDM rubber speed humps” , “Reflective Rubber speed humps”  and  “Recycled rubber  speed humps modular” which is conducive for public roads. Speed humps normally have a height of between two and three inches and four to 10 inches long and help to slow traffic where there are schools, hospitals and markets. Although speed humps are created to enhance road safety and reduce accidents, the situation is different in the Upper West Region where they are  rather death traps and accident prone because they are done poorly by the communities, thereby causing havoc to drivers who have to scale these high humps. The speed humps in the region, apart from slowing down driving and increasing driver fatigue, could be the major cause of road accidents, particularly for new drivers and motor cycle riders. Many of the humps are unauthorised and are meant to protect community members and livestock from speeding motorist. The way the humps are constructed and the number on a stretch of road make it a fashionable in the communities in which they are sited rather than a precautionary measure. There is no village, hamlet or town in the region in which you will not find speed humps.  In some cases, one could find speed humps on footpaths. Many people the GNA spoke to said they constructed the humps to protect their livestock, particularly fowls, goats and sheep from being crashed by speeding motorist The  humps,  usually  with 10  sited on a less than  five kilometers of road, such as  the Wa/Sombo and Wa/Tizza main  roads  are  shoddily done. In some cases the “Architects” of such humps place large logs, barely cover them with soil without any warning sign. Roadside vendors also construct them next to their wares in order to force drivers to slow down and buy their items. Although they are often intended to protect life, they have caused a number of traffic fatalities. It is estimated that about 25 per cent of motor bike accidents recorded in the region were due to the unauthorised speed humpss. Apart from the road accidents, humps also prolong travelling time, retard response to emergency cases by fire and ambulance services and damage vehicles. The six to seven hours’ drive from Kumasi to Wa, has increased to about 10 hours due to the speed humpss on the Kumasi-Bamboi Hamile road. Drivers cannot drive more than 50 mph even on the highway because the humps are so many that they will be damaging their vehicles if they attempt to speed. The number of speed humps increases daily.  One may drive through a community in the evening without a speed ramp but on the way back the next morning, one could encounter more than three speed humps on the same stretch of road. When drivers who use these roads are struggling to climb and descend the “mountain high speed ramps” the community members, especially the youth, will sit back and laugh at the drivers, especially those whose cars have low suspension.  The people have made up their minds to keep such unauthorised humps in place though the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, had ordered the Ghana Highways Authority in May to remove all unauthorised speed humpsin the country. It would be important for both the National Road Safety Commission and the Ghana Highways Authority to build the appropriate speed humps instead of allowing the communities to do their own thing. It is unfortunate people do not know it is illegal for any individual or group of people to mount humps on the major highways without approval from the authority. Some drivers the GNA spoke to, suggested that people who put up illegal speed humps should be arrested and prosecuted and drivers should also drive carefully and observe all road signs and regulations. GNA Feature