Corresdonce from Eastern Region

Residents of Kodjonya, a community on the main Somanya-Kpong highway in the Eastern Region have lauded the Municipal Chief Executive for Lower Manya Krobo, Simon Kweku Tetteh for heeding their call to provide speed ramps to curb pedestrian knockdowns in the area.

Their praises for the MCE follow his intervention to ensure that ramps are provided following a GhanaWeb publication on July 11, 2020, which highlighted the plight of the people.

The publication followed repeated fatal knockdowns which resulted in the deaths of about 13 residents including children and the aged between 2017 and 2020 with other victims sustaining various degrees of injury.

Residents were compelled to cross the road daily to access various amenities including the community’s public toilet, the only public basic school in the area, community library, water facilities, community football field, among others.

As part of efforts to stop the menace, the community contributed resources to adopt ingenious ways as a temporal measure, to slow down speeding vehicles and reduce the risk of knockdowns.

These measures include the use of unorthodox materials such as laterite and ship ropes as improvised speed ramps in the area.

This followed countless appeals to the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, and the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly to construct standard speed ramps in the area to save lives which fell on deaf ears.

The agitated residents who threatened to block the road as a last resort if their plight was not immediately addressed, now heave a sigh of relief after some ramps were constructed by the Department Of Urban Roads and the Ghana Highway Authority through the instrumentality of the MCE.

Speaking to GhanaWeb, Assembly Member for Kodjonya Electoral Area, Gabriel Kelvin Tettey recounting the final steps taken to ensure the provision of the ramps said he together with other opinion leaders in the community-made unrelenting efforts to get officials of the Department of Urban Roads to come down to access the situation and order authorization for the construction of the ramps.

“The Director of Urban Roads came here and surveyed the area himself and admitted that with what was going on, we need speed ramps. So he saw things for himself and also saw our letter and gave authorization that we be given ramps here,” he told GhanaWeb.

The ramps constructed at Kodjonya are not the only checks made as a total of seven ramps were built at different locations on the highway running through the municipality.

The Assembly Member however said the two provided for his community were still inadequate as residents who crossed the road at other locations within the community were still exposed to the danger of knockdowns.

“We still need more because our community is long and wide. We need additional ramps at Tesco Junction and Bush Canteen Junction,” he said, accusing drivers of speeding and driving recklessly through the area.

He nevertheless thanked the MCE, the Ghana Highway Authority and the Department of Urban Roads for providing the community with the ramps.

Sipim Angmor Owuadjao I of Menekpo-Kodjonya, Tetteh Samuel Tettey, Secretary to the Unit Committee Members for the Area and a resident and Opinion Leader, Odonkor David Dei all expressed their appreciation to the Assembly Chief for his intervention to solve the problem.

As part of efforts to avoid further knockdowns, Mr. Dei suggested that road safety officials sensitise school pupils and residents on how to safely cross the roads to avoid further disasters.

The leaders similarly thanked GhanaWeb for bringing the issue to light and drawing attention to their plight.

They however appealed for visible road signs to warn drivers of the new ramps to avert crashes into them.